Complicated
by lunareclipse3
Summary: Aline's life was simple. But when she arrives at camp and meets Nico di Angelo things start to unravel. It seems clear Nico doesn't want her around- and she'll do anything to change his mind. Quests, prophecies, 'love', can make it all very complicated.
1. 1 I Explain Mostly Everything

**Author's Note: Hey! This is my first story in the wonderful world of Percy Jackson fanfiction! Everything's so new and shiny!**

**Okay. I'm over it :)**

**I wrote this ages ago but I was proud of it so I'll post it. Thanks for reading.**

**P.S. If my OC shows symptoms of Mary Sue-ness tell me!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson or any related characters. I do not own Who I Am Hates Who I've Been by Relient K.

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The answer was Clio.

The boy beside me shifted in his seat as he tried to remember the Muse of history. Really, you're taking eighth grade Ancient Greek history and you don't know which goddess you're praying to to help you pass the exam?

"It was... Tyche, right?" he finally said. Mr. Kinner shook his head.

"She was the goddess of luck. Which you're going to need to pass this quarters exam." he added. A collective groan went up from the class but I was happy. Greek wasn't Greek to me.

Excuse me lame attempt at humor. Maybe I should ask Thalia for help with that. Pardon my second lame joke. I meant Thalia the Muse of comedy, not my best friend at this awful boarding school.

Where should I start? I'm a Greek mythology buff, a strange thing for a fourteen year old girl to say. I love it: the strange names, the heroic tales, the air about it that makes you a bit sure it's all true. This was the only class I could pass at Darkwoud Institute: 'making model citizens out of the youth since 1790'. In better words, torturing troubled kids who can't afford a better school for over 200 years! Then there was Thalia. Even though she was fifteen, pretty,and cool enough to be either extremely popular or those rebels that everyone still likes, she hung out with me, who was frequently forgotten.

"We match," she'd said, gesturing to my combat boots and dark, strange clothes. Nothing I wore was spared when I got bored and had Sharpies at hand. And indeed we did match. When she got mad at someone and reached toward her back as if going for a weapon I didn't see, I calmed her down and steered her away. I wasn't always fast enough though, and it was a wonder she hadn't gotten expelled yet.

Should I continue? Mr. Kinner rolled his wheel chair to the board and wrote 'Oral Presentation due Friday (yes, in Greek)' in chalk. The class groaned again and I almost did, too. Just because I could read it didn't mean I spoke it. The bell rang, a tinny, irritating sound like a high G sharp that wouldn't come out right.

Before dinner, we had thirty minutes to change. I walked down the wallpapered hallways, they tried to make Darkwoud feel like 'home', and entered the living quarters. In my dorm I found Thalia lying on her bed conveniently listening to my iPod. I plunked down next to her and pulled out my earphones. Her blue eyes widened in surprise and I stuck out my tongue,

"You could ask before taking my stuff!"

She nodded, solemn. "I could. I just chose not to." She broke out a grin, "How was Mr. Killer?" Lots of students called the history teacher that because of how demanding he was and how much work he assigned.

"Okay I guess, usual examinations but I've got an oral report due. It's pronounced 'ah-oo-lezz', right?"

"Nope it's 'ee'-oh-luhs'." Thalia corrected. I sighed.

"Great I get to fail my favorite class on my birthday."

Thalia furrowed her eyebrows and frowned. "It's your birthday? How old are you going to be?"

"Fifteen."

Her expression changed for a second, a flash of anger, but back to concerned. She muttered something that sound eerily like, 'should have been claimed'. She looked out our window to the sky and the storm clouds rumbled. I could have sworn, I saw the flash of lightning that was outside in her eyes as well.

"Yeah, yeah I know its not you," she said. She didn't say it to me, but to the sky. That was normal, times when she would forget that the sky couldn't answer her back.

She shook her head, as if returning to the real world, and said, "Let's skip dinner. I'm going to sneak to McDonald's. Want anything?" I shook my head and she shrugged, walking out the door. I turned on my iPod and placed it shuffle. The cool thing about music and me was, whenever I heard a song it fit my mood. Say I was really mad at a student, an angry rock song would come on the radio, even if it was like, the country music station. This tune fit my mood perfectly.

"_I watched the proverbial sunrise, coming up over the Pacific and,  
__you might think I'm losing my mind, but I will shy away from the specifics..._"

I wouldn't be seeing a sunrise over the Pacific anytime soon, proverbial or not. Not since my single mom moved us out here to New York and exiled- I mean enrolled, me at the Institute. Don't get me wrong, I love my mom. But my first couple of months here I hated her. Who would ever think of choosing big city life, mental kids, even more mental teachers, gray uniforms, and smoggy air over a tiny surf town on the coast of California, nice, close-knit people, clean air and water, and a place were 'clothing optional' actually applied?

My mom would.

"It's for the best." she'd told me when I finally came out of my room after a three day hunger strike. So I said goodbye to Tanner and the red headed twins Griffin and Alec and headed north.

While I waited for Thalia to return (knowing she'd have bought me fries anyway) I retrieved my Greek textbook and let the words take over. First, I re-re-read read the tragic tale of Echo and how Hera cursed her. Whenever I said Hera was kind of rhymes-with-witch-y, Thalia would get nod and finger her 'bad' leg. I memorized every gods and heroes mother, which was a feat, considering how much Zeus 'liked' mortals. I made notes because my report was on the minor gods, like Nemesis, Eos, and Triton who deserved more respect than they got. People just didn't take time to appreciate the little things in life.

It was getting late and my eyes glazed over. Suddenly, and I was sure I hadn't done it myself, the pages turned to a chapter way at the end.

'Greek Monsters'. Something compelled me to read about them. They were both fascinating and terrifying. I read some of there names out loud: 'empousa', 'gorgon', 'laistrygonians', 'stymphalian birds'. As I read off the names, I felt... something. You know the expression 'like someone's walking on your grave'? That's what it felt like, a cold chill at the base of my spine, a shadow spreading and getting stronger as I said the names.

The door slammed open and the cold retreated. Thalia looked at me, my textbook, and my mouth half forming the word 'echinda'. I saw her face was scratched up and her Green Day tour shirt ripped. There was also a disappointing lack of greasy fried food, making me think she wasn't where she said she would be.

"Do not use them lightly, for names have power." she said in an authoritative tone, a silver silhouette around her, neither of which I thought were hers. The glow faded, her voice returned to the norm. "Besides. Don't you know only geeks read ahead?"

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**So? Chapters are fairly short but updates are often. (Update 11/27/10: that turned out to be a lie lol :))**


	2. 2 My Best Friend Becomes My Mother

**Author's Note: Wow I just realized this is drifting away from what I originally wrote. Oh well. I want a beta, but I don't know how to get one...**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson, That Green Gentleman by Panic! At The Disco.**

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The answer was sugar, loud music, and a room to myself.

When Thalia asked me what I had planned for my birthday I told her just that. Maybe, my plan should have been 'stay alive'. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

I was the last one out of History class. At his desk, Mr. Kinner was sorting through our oral report scores. I saw an 'A-' next to my name and breathed a sigh of relief. Mr. Kinner looked up and smiled. Yeah I'll admit it, my heart gave a little jump. Mr. Kinner was this Korean-British guy with long black hair and heavy lidded eyes. For a teacher so strict, he was really young, maybe twenty-five. Every so often a student would work up the nerve to ask how he end up in a wheelchair. He'd get this look on his face like he was trying to remember and say, "It was four years ago in the late summer. I remember being in on the Williamsburg Bridge then waking up in the hospital. Nothing in between." Then he'd shake his head and kindly change the subject. I'd always had a tiny-little-microscopic-ginormous crush on him.

"You did exceptionally well on this Miss Lucis. Correct pronunciation and kudos for the cute accent. Why is it you choose to pay attention to this, dusty myths, and not the square root of 324 and how much hydrogen is found in oil?" he joked.

"I'm not sure," I humored back. "Maybe its actually important to life."

Mr. Kinner suddenly got serious. "You know, you're absolutely right."

I looked at him, surprise written across my face. He blinked like he was clearing his head. "Ah, nevermind. Hurry along to dinner." I reluctantly turned toward the door.

"By the way," Mr. Kinner called. "it's 18, 0.25 H per 600 ml, and happy birthday."

In my dorm I found Thalia conveniently on my bed, with my music player. But the telltale white box in her hands made up for that. I sat Indian style across from her.

"So sunshine, how was your day?" she asked, handing me a sprinkled doughnut.

"Killer complimented me on my report! He called my fake accent 'cute'!"

"Ooo!" Thalia trilled. "A little teacher-slash-student thing, eh?"

I rolled my eyes and hoped I wasn't nearly as red as I felt. "Shut up Thalia. That would never happen. The point is my day was good and I didn't trip over my tongue talking in front of the class. I don't feel any different but as Panic! At The Disco would say '_Things have changed for me, and that's okay, I feel the same_'."

Thalia nibbled on a chocolate thoughtfully. "Everything's the same. That's good. Okay, as long as she stays ignorant...I need you to do me a favor."

"But it's my birthday! Shouldn't you be doing stuff for me?" I said reaching for my fifth doughnut. She swatted my hand away.

"I'm not joking. I have to go out tonight but you can have the room to yourself if you stay here. No sneaking out, lock the door, shut the windows, only open the door for me."

"Thanks Mom. I'll remember to heat the casserole too. Nah, I'll stay in." Thalia relaxed just a bit. We polished off the box. Thalia left around eight.

Now, the thing is I'm ADHD and not a great listener. So even though Thalia told me to stay inside, I was bored by eight thirteen. I pulled on a pair of ankle boots and a coat, grabbed my purse, fifty bucks and my iPod. Thank goodness my dorm was on the first floor, so I could jump out the window. Darkwoud was a cheapskate school, without much security. I made a mad dash across the campus, dodging lamps and skirting around guards who hadn't had enough coffee. Honestly, it was a little fun; I felt like a secret agent in a B-rate movie. I pulled open the wrought iron gate, wincing at the screech it made. I slipped out. I was free!

The noise of New York was a breath of fresh air. Actually the air was kind of heavy but it was a pleasant surprise nonetheless. Darkwoud was so secluded I'd forgotten what New York City was like. A little romp down the street and I was back in the rivers of people and bright lights. Even at night it was loud and busy. I'd been in the city exactly twice in the four months since I moved here so everything still amazed me. Especially the people. The town I was from was awesome, but not that diverse. Here I passed all kinds of people: goths, skaters, circus freaks, power-suit wearing Blackberry holders, stoners, socialites, Paris Hilton wannabes, and regular people. Nobody looked at me weird, a lone girl in a trench coat. Not even the six young kids in windbreakers or three teens dressed entirely in black holding what looked suspiciously like daggers and whips got weird looks. I bought pretzels from vendors, laughed at the giant Jonas Brothers ad, flirted with the group of boys who whistled at me, and watched the street performers, dropping them quarters. I found the nicest red dress and bought it.

Near West 57th I hailed a cab with a sharp whistle. The driver definitely didn't look old enough to have a license, much less be a taxi driver. He had a red rasta cap and from the look of it really furry pants. He looked at me funny, like I was a blurred image, then a look of recognition passed over him like he knew me. I certainly didn't know him.

"Where to, Miss?"

"North 49th please."

"Got pay?"

I nodded and looked in my purse. Uh oh. I'd used up all my money. At the bottom of my bag was a large, gold coin I found under Thalia's bed. I held it up to the driver. His eyes widened, "Where'd you get that?"

"Does it really matter?"

"I guess not," he sounded different, "Get in."

I climbed into the cracked leather seat. I got a better look at the driver and noticed how the cap on his head stuck up funny, like there was something under them. His pants were strange as well, besides the fact they were fuzzy. He caught we staring in the rearview mirror and pulled up the screen. Hmm. I glanced at my watch. It was almost eleven thirty and Thalia would no doubt be back and be mad. She was like a really controlling sibling sometimes.

"I have twenty-six sisters, what do you expect?" she'd smirk.

I watched the people and the buildings whiz by. These streets didn't look familiar. I was sure this wasn't the road to Darkwoud Institute. It was less lit and more run down.

"Excuse me?" I said. Something was fluttering in the bottom of my stomach a notion that something could go wrong. Heck I was driving through the slums with a guy who wouldn't listen to me; everything could go wrong.

"Cabbie, could you pull over?"

He didn't answer.

"Hello!"

"Um, this is going to sound really strange but could you come with me somewhere?"

"What place?

"I can't say."

"Uh huh. Do I look like a hoochie? Pull over!"

The boy looked timid and I probably looked angry. He pulled over and let me out. I tossed him the gold coin and said, "Keep the change."

He stared at me again and took off. I then realized I'd made one of those split second decisions that I regret much later. Or really soon, because I was lost, and out of cash at midnight in New York. I didn't mean to but I laughed out loud thinking how much worse this could be if I was in LA or Vegas. The sound was loud and out of place in the silence. I hadn't noticed them before and they probably hadn't noticed me, but I saw sparse outlines of 'shady' characters, and they were getting closer. Great.

There was an alley to my left, long and narrow. I backed into it until I could no longer see the silhouettes. The alley was small enough that if I spread my arms I touched both walls. There was nothing but me and the moonless night. My breathing quickened, I felt like the dark was suffocating me. The corners of my vision were tinged with red. Crap, crap, I didn't need this now- I took a breath and heard my mom, "_Calm down, honey, it'll be alright. Just breathe_." I listened to her, and sucked in the cold night air. For a moment, I felt everything would be okay.

That's when I heard the scream.

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**Thank you so much for the reviews of the first chapter. They were mostly positive and I don't think Aline will be a Mary Sue. She's got a flaw, pretty big but not psychological. Sorry if you thought Mr. Kinner was Chiron. I was actually thinking of Daniel Henney when I wrote about him (google him he's cute!)**

**Another chapter tonight if I have time.**

**~Lunar**


	3. 3 MCR Lends A Hand In My Doom

**Author's Note: This chapter was hard :(**

**Thanks for reviews, alerts, and faves. I do this for fun so it makes me happy that people recognize it. I do not own Percy Jackson or any related characters and I do not own House of Wolves by My Chemical Romance.

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The answer was trouble.

I heard a scream pierce the night. I turned abruptly and oh so conveniently smacked my head against a wall, hearing a sicking _crack_. I put my head in my hands as my brain thumped like a good bass line. I blinked rapidly but everything I saw was blurred. I knew I had to get away from... whatever that was, and get my head checked. I backed up the direction I thought I'd come but instead I came across a maze of passageways and dead ends. Perfect.

I heard things that did not belong in a New York City alleyway: inhuman screeches, howls, and the clang of metal against metal. From a corner rounded a dark mob, things I couldn't make out in the dark. And they were coming my way. The smart thing to do would have been to run away fast. Maybe it was my head injury (or just masochistic amazement) but I stayed where I was, cowering with my back to a grimy wall. As they got closer and I deciphered the lines and shapes, my jaw hit the ground. I'd finally lost my mind.

Remember that 'taboo' chapter of my textbook, 'Greek Monsters'? Well it contents were slinking my direction.

I couldn't tell what everything was but I recognized the women, normal except for their Greek battle armor and two snake-like trunks. Dracaena. Marching behind them were two giants, swinging javelins, looking hungry. Thrown in were giant dogs that looked like they were made of shadow and creatures with flaming hair, illuminating their scary but pretty faces. In the lead was a monster I knew well, the Amphisbaena. It slithered down the pass, it's two heads placed at opposite ends sniffing the air. The venom dripping from its oversized fangs burned little holes in the concrete. These monsters were coming to kill me. Or so I thought. The miniature army split in the middle and through it came a figure that looked human, thank goodness.

The figure screamed a battle cry. Then, all hell broke loose. I heard the screeches again, they came from the girls with the hair of flames. A hellhound bounded toward the figure, and I decided to assume the fighter was a girl. If that were me I'd have fainted, but the girl hit it and it dissolved. She hadn't hit it with her hand, however, she'd used a _sword_. As she slashed and hacked, I could only see the sword if I focused. It was long and black as the sky, mirroring the moon and stars, and anything within a foot of it disinergrated. Yet the girl was struggling and the monsters got a few good strikes. One of the giants whacked her over the head and she buckled to her knees. The giant raised a foot to squish her but the girl rolled out of the way and stabbed it in the back.

The fight was getting closer and closer to me, but neither the monsters nor the girl noticed me watching. Thirty feet, twenty feet... I could see the girl's eyes: dark brown with a crazed light like she was enjoying herself. An empousa raked at her and I wanted to scream "Turn around" but the words got stuck in my throat. Luckily, the girl back handed her with extreme force. Unluckily, she smacked her right into me. I crumpled under the empousa's weight, my head smacking the walls again. I felt something warm and sticky run down the back of my neck. I was vaguely aware that the contents of my purse had spilled out and my iPod had turned itself on at maximum volume. Gerard Way filled the air:

"_You better run like the devil 'cause their never gonna leave you alone  
You better hide out in the alley 'cause their never gonna find you a home  
__As the blood runs down these walls  
__You see me creepin' up these halls I'm a bad mother******  
Tell your sister I'm another Go! Go! Go!_"

Yes, I was pretty sure at least a little of my blood had just repainted these walls. The lyrics made me think how this wasn't the first time I wished I'd listened to Thalia.

Back in what shouldn't have been reality, the monsters and the girl noticed me for the first time. The Amphisbaena sniffed the air, and all the creatures turned toward me... and charged. I don't know what you'd do but I screamed like a little girl. I'd always thought Greek monsters left humans alone! A dracaena stabbed toward me with her spear but I ducked, the tip lodging itself above my head. She pulled it out angrily and tried again. I yelped and jumped out of the way each time. Finally the fighter slashed off her head and the dracaena blew away in a cloud of gold dust.

"What the heck is going on!" I cried. The girl didn't answer me. She was too busy fighting, which I would have done if I wasn't so stunned. The battle went on until there was only a giant and a handful of hellhounds. They retreated, yelling curses in Greek. I choked on the gold dust polluting the air and squinted through it to make out my savior. She took off her helmet. She was a he. Oops.

Yes indeed it was a boy. He would have been really good looking if he hadn't had such a crazy and or mad expression on his face. I could tell from experience he was getting ready to tell me off, but I got a word in first,

"What's your name? Who are you? What are you?"

The boy didn't respond, instead he snapped: a loud, clear sound. Before I fell asleep he told me his answer. What was it?

I already told you that.

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**If you didn't get it it went like this: "What's your name? Who are you? What are you?" "Trouble." I don't know how it was but fight scenes aren't my specialty.**

**~Lunar**


	4. 4 I Believe You, I'm Lying

**Author's Note: I watched the Lightning Thief movie the other day. It was an okay movie itself but nothing like the book. The best part was Grover even though he was OOC. And Lerman's cuteness.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians. I do not own The Only Exception by Paramore even though its one of my favorite songs and bands. And I loved them before they appeared on the Twilight soundtrack :(

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The answer was midday.

That's when I finally woke up after seemingly endless dreams of brick mazes and things that belonged only in story books. There was one dream in particular:

_Thaila paced my dorm, swearing quietly,_

_"What were you thinking! You tried to put her to sleep, and you're not a child of Morpheus! You could have put her in vegetable state, or killed her! You're lucky she's a fast healer!"_

_I couldn't see who she was talking to, but something moved in the corner of the room. There was another person, drenched in shadows._

_"Why hello Thalia," he drawled, "it's nice to see you too. I've been fine the past four years, thanks for asking. You're looking young, how are you?"_

_"Shut it, Death Breath! Now all my suspicions are confirmed."_

_"It wasn't my fault, Pinecone Face! What was a beanpole like her doing out alone? She's, what, twelve, she should have been claimed already."_

_"She's fifteen dummy. And I don't know why she wasn't claimed, I was beginning to think she was normal. But you turned the monsters on her."_

_"What's done is done. Give her the pep talk and send her to camp."_

_"I don't think that's a good idea-"_

_"Oh no! You are not making her join the Hunters! One, because we _all _know how she'll turn out and two, because she's much too pretty for that." His tone was harshly sarcastic. A blue spark danced between Thalia and him._

_"_Ow!_"_

_"I doubt she's powerful, and definitely not Big Three material. Maybe she can live a normal life with fiends and a real family."_

_The figure shook what I assumed was his head, "Why would you say that?"_

_"Because unlike us she has one to go back to."_

I sat up quickly. That was a bad move. I clutched my head and sucked in a breath. The back of my head felt like someone had stuffed it with cotton and then blowtorched it. To say the least, it hurt. The crown of my head all the way to my neck was covered in cotton bandages. I was still wearing a pair of skinny jeans and a green sweater.

I looked up, to Thalia for an answer.

"You've been out of it for almost two days," she admitted. My eyes widened,

"What in the world happened?"

"You... don't remember?"

"Oh I remember alright, but what I think happened couldn't have possibly happened. I'd like a second opinion."

Thalia asked me what I recalled and I told her everything. About sneaking out, the weird taxi driver, getting lost, and the fight. When I told her about the boy who'd rescued me her expression darkened.

"He's who brought me here, right?" The thought of that eerie guy carrying me back to my room was creepy yet intriguing.

"And I thought I had weird dreams. None of that happened, Aline. I don't doubt that you snuck out, however. Still, you definitely imagined the fight. You're a reasonable person. You know things like that don't exist."

"What do you mean? I'm a hundred percent sure that happened! Can you explain how did I end up with _this_," I gestured to my head wound, "why I'm all scratched up, and why I was asleep for two days?"

"You were trying- and not succeeding mind you- to sneak back inside. You were climbing the window sill. It's much harder to get up than down, huh? You lost your balance and fell, _smack_, on the ground. Of course wonderful old me found you and fixed you up. See everything makes sense." She smiled, but it seemed forced.

I processed everything she said. It was believable but I wasn't convinced. I slowly said, "If you say so, Thalia. Maybe... I've just been studying too hard. Thanks for the explanation."

"No problem." She sounded like she didn't believe me, "So do you need anything?"

I shook my head. "I think I'll take a shower and catch up on my schoolwork. Did you, by chance, remember to be a savior of my grades and get me my homework?" She handed me an envelope.

"The teachers think you have a terrible, terrible case of H1N1. Coughing, sneezing, fitful sleeping, it's _awful_," she exaggerated.

"One last thing, who are the 'Big Three'?"

She looked caught off guard. "The Big Three... Kobe Bryant, Dwayne Wade, and LeBron James, duh." Thalia stood up and headed for the door.

"By the way," I started. She faced me, "I don't have a lot to look forward to at home."

Thalia left me to get ready. After I showered I put on a pair of cotton pajamas. I wouldn't be heading out anytime soon. I switched on my ancient portable radio, a going away gift from Tanner. There were futuristic static-y noises for a minute but it went to a Paramore song:

" _I've got a tight grip on reality  
But I can't Let go of what's in front of me here  
I know you're leaving In the morning, when you wake up  
Leave me with some kind of proof it's not a dream "_

Oh look at that, my weird 'music-to-fit-my-mood' powers were acting up again. Relentlessly, I mouthed the lyrics, thinking about two nights ago. I was all for reality: Earth isn't flat, every living thing is made of cells, vampires and werewolves don't exist (no matter how much tween girls want them to), gravity makes apples fall, and we all die at some point; I couldn't help but harness a small hope that what I thought had occurred, did. However terrifying it was, it was a sign there was something… _more_ to the world. Something I wanted to find out. And that boy with the sword was semi-cute. Maybe if he cut his hair and took anger-management classes.

Too many thoughts were buzzing around in my skull. My brain wasn't ready for so much stress yet. Carefully, I laid my head back on the pillow. I slept on my side and when I turned, I caught a peek of something white. It looked like a piece of binder paper. I read it, "_Get well soon_", written in a handwriting that was neither mine nor Thalia's. Call me hopeless or crazy but it looked a lot like:_ "proof it's not a dream"_.

This clue was both scary and reassuring. The former, because those monsters had been real and the latter because I wasn't completely, insane. Looked like our visitor cared.

I'd long hid the note by the time Thalia had returned from her classes. Normally I would have been like, "In your face that fight was real and I have proof!", but I didn't say that. Instead I let her tell me my 'fall' wasn't a big deal and everything was back to normal. I went to class, I passed notes to Alexander Glade, I didn't understand my homework, I had a crush on Mr. Kinner, I drew on my jeans, I listened to my iPod with Thalia, and I read on Ancient Greece. Everything was normal.

For awhile anyway.

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**Track starts soon. Wish me luck.**

**~Lunar**


	5. 5 Treacherous Hotness

**Author's Note: Alright I really suck at battle scenes. So if this chapter sucks, please don't stop reading the story because it'll get a lot better as it progresses. I pinky promise.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians or any related characters. I do not own Get Busy Living Or Get Busy Dying (Do Your Part To Save The Scene And Stop Going To Shows) by Fall Out Boy. (Well that was kind of obvious. If I owned the song it wouldn't be Fall Out Boy, it would be Two Steps Backward. Which is my musical alias. I wish :]. But it will be someday so don't steal it).

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The answer was visiting Southern California.

"That's cool," Thalia responded, "I'm going to Greenland for break. You're luckier, it's still summer-like weather and in California it'll be warm."

That's right. Thalia and I were painting our nails ("Bastille My Heart" purple and "Jade is The New Black"), and discussing the weather and what we were going to do over fall break. We were back on good terms. My weird 'dream' and my disbelief were forgotten. At least, Thalia forgot them. I acted as normal as possible around other students, but on my own time I did research on what happened. Was the boy some kind of supernatural, had someone sent those monsters, and why had they only attacked after the boy saw me? It took a lot of time but Mr. Kinner was a lot of help.

"I must say Ms. Lucis, you are truly one of my favorite students." he'd said. I inadvertently blushed, and though I should have smiled and gone back to looking through books, I said,

"Why would I be? I'm dyslexic and have an attention shorter than the lunch lady."

"Yes, but you're extremely determined and very creative. I've never seen a student so devoted to Greek mythology. It's very cute."

There was that c-word again. I did smile- there was probably something wrong with me- and went back to reading textbooks.

Back in real time, Thalia had asked me if I wanted to go to the dining hall today.

"It's the last day of the quarter, so they'll make something good." she said. I agreed. We changed out of our gray, navy, and white clothes. I hated the uniforms, just looking at them made me age thirty years. Thalia put on a ratty overcoat and a Trapt concert shirt, I changed into Levi's and a tank. I noticed Thalia had dug a small, silver backpack out of her dresser. I looked quizzically at it, but Thalia shook her head. I left it at that.

Darkwoud's campus was small. You only had to cross the tree filled quad to get the cafeteria. The brochure said they planted trees to "give back to the environment" but over time someone had stopped caring and let the trees overgrow. You had to be careful when you walked unless you wanted to lose an eye to a leafy branch or trip over a root. That, combined with the streetlights illuminating the path, gave the quad a feeling like strolling through a faerie haven.

Or maybe a witch's forest. Because the sky was too dark for even mid-autumn, the cold nipped at our heels, and the atmosphere felt… wrong. It was like the whole campus was holding its breath. I realized it was because there were no students. Even when it was late, mischievous looking kids milled around gossiping and avoiding grownups. The only people besides us were two teenage boys hanging by a particularity large oak tree, either drinking or smoking. I tugged on Thalia's sleeve and we stopped, pretending to talk but secretly checking them out.

They were very different yet both could have been Abercrombie models. The one on the right was short but muscled, like he spent all his time lifting cars. He had a dark tan making his blond hair stand out even though it was a buzz cut. The boy on the left was tall and bean pole skinny. He had his hands in the pockets of his skinny jeans, and his wavy brown hair fell into his eyes. There was a lean curve to his back, almost feline, as he leaned over to talk to his friend. They were watching us, too, but not as discreetly.

"I call the tall one." I said. The shorter one was studying Thalia; his green eyes were the color of acid and by the way Thalia shuffled, his gaze felt like it too. She grabbed my hand and began fast-walking, dragging me behind her.

"Gee, you were serious when you said you'd given up on boys, weren't you?"

"Yes." Thalia sighed, "Be serious for a minute. When you looked at them what did you see?"

"Um, two incredibly hot guys?"

"You're impossible, aren't you?"

"That's what my momma tells me."

"Ugh! Weren't they kind of weird?"

"I don't know? Why don't you ask them? They're following us." Thalia halted suddenly and I crashed into her five foot six frame. Ow. She turned slowly and watched the two boys approach.

"_O di immortales_!" she cursed. Never taking her eyes of the boys, she released her death-grip on my wrist and handed me the chain necklace she always wore. The weird thing was, when I held it, it lengthened and slimmed until I was holding a seven foot long whip of bronze. I let my eyes lose focus and it transformed back in a necklace.

"Thalia-" I began. She stopped me with a flick of her hand and then put it to her waist, where her Mace canister was clipped to her belt. The boys were now less than twenty feet away and they were lit up in the streetlamps. But branches obscured the light, casting shadows over their beautiful faces. As they came closer and closer the air seemed to be sucked away from me and toward them. I started feeling dizzy. I decided to assume it was their gorgeousness mesmerizing me.

"Hello ladies," the shorter one said, as they stopped before us. Now I could see everything about them, from their delicate, almost feminine look to the slight bump on their backs. _Sigh_…

Thalia was the first to regain composure, "Hello gentlemen. Are you new here?"

"Yeah," the other said and I swooned like an anime character at his voice, "I don't think you know us."

"I don't."

"Well I'm Alec, and this is Eric," he said gesturing to his friend. Eric held out his hand. Thalia didn't shake it.

"Isn't there one of you missing?"

"I thought you said you didn't know them?" I finally said.

"S'okay. She's right. Christopher's busy doing his, er, job."

"Avenging murder." Thalia said under her breath.

"Right-y oh." Alec smirked, "he's engineering easier mathematics."

"See," I persisted, "they're perfectly nice people."

"Sure they are. So what were you doing out here so late?" Thalia asked.

Eric answered this time, "Same as you, beautiful. Heading to dinner."

"Really? So you weren't out here smoking, or drinking, or anything equally as bad?"

"Does it really matter, hon?" Alec said, "We all do some wrong in our lives."

"And eventually we all pay." Eric added.

"Oh you'd know that for sure, wouldn't you?" Thalia hissed. "I have no love for who you work for. Sure he did something nice in New York, but one good deed doesn't make up for an immortal lifetime of bad ones does it? Why are you here? Neither her or I have done any wrong. So if you'd leave that would be good. Or am I going to have to confess about how unkindly, terrible, horrible, and deceitful you really are?"

"Aw," Alec pretended to be hurt, "you make us sound like bad people." He turned to me and said, "We sound like trouble, don't we? You're probably put off us. But come with me, and "_tell me you'd like boys like me better, in the dark lying on top of you_."

I don't know which had stunned me into silence first: the fact he quoted Fall Out Boy or what he'd actually said.

"Ew," was all Thalia could muster.

Eric sighed. "They're not working with us. I hate it when people don't work with us. The boss said 'shoot to kill', so can we start already?"

"Fine." Alec snapped. They stepped back, and exploded.

No. Not exploded. That would have made the remainder of the night much easier. We could have avoided everything that followed, pretended we didn't know who the shriveled remains were, gone to dinner and had coffee cake for dessert, then gone back to our dorm for a night of restful sleep. But no, since I'm me and life can never be that simple, I'll tell you what really happened. Instead of imploding, they were engulfed by black fire and what emerged were two very-not-hot-teenage-boys.

Indeed not. They were two fully grown women with shriveled little faces and bodies. They must have once been beautiful but now they were old and haggard. They wore flowing Greek gowns of black cloth that matched the leathery bat wings on their backs. It suddenly made sense: the lumps on their backs, their girlish features. They weren't the best friends Alec and Eric, they were the-

"Erinyes!" Thalia yelled.

The Furies. Alec was Alecto, the unceasing. That was why he kept trying to get me to agree with him. Eric was Megaera, the grudging. That explained his impatience and why he was upset at Thalia. And the missing was Christopher, who was Tisiphone, avenging murder. I had pieced it all together, just in time for them to attack.

Alec, I mean Alecto, swooped toward me and I did the natural thing, I ducked. His- her talons sliced the air where my head should have been but he- she cackled, like my attempts amused him. Her!

"Thalia!" I cried, as the Fury dived for me again and I hit the ground, "What do I do?"

"Fight it!" Thalia was busy fighting Eric- Megaera. She was jabbing at him with a spear that had appeared from nowhere, and shooting arrows at the same time.

"How?"

"With the whip, genius!" she yelled in time for the Fury to bomb me once again. I yelped and rolled to the side. Her talons impaled the ground and she struggled to get out. I took the opportunity to flail the necklace around, trying to make it work. The Fury yanked her claws out of the dirt as soon as the jewelry turned back into a weapon.

I put on my best 'bring-it-on' voice. "Hey hag! I don't know what's grosser! Your face or the fact that you were hitting on me! You're, what, four millennia old?"

Alecto howled and stomped her foot, if you can do that in mid-air. She flew toward me again and I cracked the whip. I missed by a mile, but the Fury didn't. She got a blow to the side of my head, leaving me dizzy. I could vaguely hear Thalia call, "If you don't know how to fight then run!"

I obeyed. I took off toward the jumble of trees. I found myself thinking, I wish I'd listened to Tanner and gone out for track, as I tumbled through the partial forest, being pursued by a bloodthirsty mythical creature. Tanner. I was supposed to go see him in less than three days. If the Fury killed me I couldn't do that. So I ran faster.

Feeling a moment of bravery I swung the whip over my head. The Fury ducked and it hit a tree branch instead, cutting it off. Uh-oh. Keeping one eye on the trees in my way and the other on Alecto, I attempted to hit her with the bronze whip, but I only hit trees. She had the advantage, she could hide but I couldn't maneuver the whip well. I felt obliged to whine and thought: why couldn't Thalia have given me a better weapon! As I ran, tree branches scratched at my face and limbs but that was nothing compared to what the Fury's talons could do. I sprinted blindly, when had the quad gotten so big!

I lashed for the Fury's wing and the whip got wrapped around a branch. I pulled on it and nearly had my arm ripped out of its socket. I kept tugging and tugging until it finally came loose. I switched the whip to my right hand and kept my lefy arm close to my side. I ran the direction of the edge of the woods.

"Thalia!" I screamed. I saw her, running in my direction. I guess she'd taken out Eric. A shame, for he truly was cute.

Alecto screeched and lunged for me. Her talons slashed down my injured arm. I almost collapsed from the pain but Thalia's voice kept me up,

"Come on Aline! You can do it! Tie your whip to the tree again!"

"That's how I-"

"Just do it!"

I looked at her and saw a storm approaching in her blue eyes. I listened. I cracked the whip so it tied around the highest branch of an oak tree, ran back, and then forward… directly into the Fury. Alecto was surprised and she ducked out of my way as I tore through the air. As I flipped upside down I felt a minute of vertigo, a tiny bit of joy at the feeling of flying. I caught the branch and clumsily climbed up the remainder of the tree with one arm. The Fury rounded on me, turning her back to Thalia. Her mistake. From the spear, Thalia shot a twenty foot long arc of crackling, silver lightning. The Fury wailed and disintegrated.

"Aline, we won!" Thalia cried. I remember smiling to that before the world turned upside down, and I fell out of the tree, blacking out.

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**Reviews loved. Flames hated, but accepted. Like I said, the story will get better once Aline actually gets to camp. Another chapter tomorrow.**


	6. 6 The Farm Pharmacy

**Author's Note: In case you didn't read the chapter before this, yeah the chapter before this is new. If you did read it, thanks.**

**By the way, if you've noticed I never described what Aline looks like. That's because I wanted you to imagine her yourself. But I see her with really short dark curls and brown skin like she's Greek or Native American.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians or any related characters. I do not own Caves by Jack's Mannequin.

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The answer was a beat up Ford F-150.

That's where I woke up, with the last remnants of evening sunlight filtering through the dusty windows. When I awakened, I noticed a few things. One, Thalia was driving. She was so not old enough to drive! Two, we weren't in Kansas- I mean, New York City anymore. We were cruising along a country road, all green, flat land dotted with farms and orange sky dotted with clouds. Something shimmered in the distance: a stretch of blue water. I averted my eyes. The third was I couldn't feel my left arm. I looked at it and wished I hadn't. It was wrapped in white cloth but it was stained red with blood. From under the cloth I could see three jagged lacerations. They were deep and the skin around them was turning green and black, like I was decomposing. I think it was my scream that alerted Thalia I was awake.

She looked at me in the rearview mirror. "I wanted to change the bandages but you flinched every time I touched it, even unconscious. And I used all the ambrosia and nectar I had on fixing your head injuries from falling out of that tree."

There were a lot of things I could have asked: where were we, how'd I get the cuts, why'd we leave Darkwoud, what was ambrosia, who's car was this, but, naturally, the first thing out of my mouth was: "Got my iPod?"

Thalia tossed it to me, "Don't you want to know what happened?"

I shook my head and she left it at that.

With Thalia leaving me alone, I fell asleep to piano music:

_And out here_ _I watch the sun circle the earth_  
_The marrows collide in rebirth_  
_In God's glory praise_  
_The spirit calls out from the caves._  
_The walls fell and there I lay_ _Saved._

The words took over my dreams, but not in a nice way. There was no sun where I was, only dark caverns. Around me were people, but they weren't because they were all slowly becoming someone else, transforming. I was not in control as I moved toward a tall cave. I looked in and what I saw made me scream. As I did the walls and pillars around me all shook and began to fall.

"Aline!" Thalia's scream brought me from my nightmare. My eyes snapped open. Thalia was looking at me, absolutely terrified, absolutely unlike her.

"What happened?" I asked groggily.

"You'd fallen asleep but you started convulsing and screaming and I couldn't get you to wake up and, and..." Thalia took a deep breathe. "The point is you're okay now. Or not. The wound opened back up." She looked to my arm which was once again dripping blood. "It's a good thing we're here."

"Whe-" the words stopped short. We were on top of a hill, to our right was a pine tree, with a glittering gold creature encircling it. Spread out in front of us was the most amazing place I had ever seen. There was a three story farmhouse, its light blue facade lit up with tiny white lights. There were thick, dark woods, and a giant lake. Next to what appeared to be strawberry fields, was a collection of small, but beautiful buildings. They surrounded a courtyard full of flower beds and basketball courts and picnic tables. There was a big metal structure with smoke pouring from it and horse stables, too. The most amazing part was the place was full of Greek buildings! It was as if ancient Greece had been rebuilt right here.

"Annabeth did a good job," Thalia noted. "Come on."

We walked down a well worn dirt path that lead straight to the farmhouse. It was even nicer up close. It had a table out on the whitewashed wraparound porch. Thalia rapped on the door, "This is the Big House".

The door was opened by a little man in tiger striped pajamas, fuzzy pink slippers, wearing his black hair in curlers and a bright green mud mask. Oh yes, the midget went there. Thalia choked back a giggle.

"Hello huntress. I did not know you were welcome here. And ah, you've brought another. Just what we need," the man said, looking me over. Somehow, I didn't think he was happy to see us.

"Hello Mr. D. She's kind of hurt, so can you get Chiron to help her?"

"No."

"Yes, I can." A wheelchair rolled into view from the other side of the house. My heart fluttered for a second thinking it was Mr. Kinner. It was actually a middle aged man with kind eyes and a fuzzy beard. "Hello Thalia, it's nice to see you again. And who is this?"

Thalia bowed quickly, "Greetings Chiron, this is my friend Aline. She got a bit hurt getting here if you can imagine."

He looked at me and then at my arm. He nodded. "Bring her around to the infirmary."

Not far from the Big House was a low, wooden building. The shiny, clean inside was full of rows of cots and medicine cabinets. It was a mini clinic. The infirmary was empty except for one girl. She was reading a magazine at a desk and she looked a bit younger than me.

"Hey Kayla." Thalia said. The girl looked up, the light reflecting off her red rimmed glasses. She cracked a smile and said,

"Hey Thalia. Doing well?"

"I'm fine. My friend here, not so much." she gestured to me. I smiled at the girl but she didn't smile back. Without a word she led me to one of the cots. I sat down and she handed me a cup of two gold pills. I swallowed them and I felt a little better. My arm stopped throbbing and it didn't hurt when she cut off the bandages. Even if this girl, Kayla, was a doctor, the sight of my marred arm made her flinch. Saying a Greek chant under her breathe, she gripped the cuts. My arm started glowing gold and warmth flooded through me. Immediately the cuts began to close and my skin started to clear. Kayla let go and leaned on a cot, breathing heavily.

"That took a lot out of me." she said. She glared at me from over her glasses, like it was my fault she was so tired. Me, I was still amazed over how she'd just healed me herself. She was like Elixir from the X-Men. Only not a boy. And without golden skin. And she probably wouldn't end up killing me. I hoped.

Engulfed in that ADD moment, I hadn't noticed Kayla began talking, "Those cuts went really deep. I wasn't able to fix it completely but it's a wonder I could heal it at all. Your arm is still usable but it'll never be the same. You may feel phantom pains, and sometimes you may not feel your arm at all. Hopefully, it'll go away but unless you see someone on Olympus..." she trailed off, like she was pondering my life with a defective arm.

"It's okay." I assured her, "Thanks."

Kayla shrugged and left. Thalia took her place. She crossed her arms nervously. "I'm really sorry. I should have tried harder to keep you safe."

"Forget about it. I'll be fine, Thalia. I just have a lot to process. Where are we?"

"Camp Half-Blood."

"And what happens next?"

"The orientation film."

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**I don't think I ever read a OC fic where they watched the orientation film mentioned in book 3. Another up tomorrow but no updates for awhile after, sorry.**

**Also, anyone read Maximum Ride? I've been writing a romance fic for that and I found a Marvel superhero (Icarus) that reminded me so much of Iggy, wings and all!:**

**http:/media. /uploads/ 0/77/76897- 184842-icarus_super. jpg**


	7. 7 Is There OFF! For The JoBros

**Author's Note: Woot! My big brother got into Harvard. If he can, I totally can :)**

**Does anyone else listen to Mayday Parade? I love them personally.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians or any related characters. I do not own Love Bug by the Jonas Brothers. And you know what? They DO have talent, but Disney shucked them up. And they're going to be used a lot in this story. So ha :)

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The answer was something I really wanted to believe. But how could I?

Thalia led me to a little shack by the Big House. The inside had rows of wooden benches and at the front wall, a plain white screen. It was like being transported back to the year 1000. Or whenever my mom was little. I took a seat as Thalia put a roll of film in an ancient looking projector. She sat next to me as numbers flickered across the screen.

A cartoon of young man in a white toga flew into view, courtesy of a winged hat and sandals.

"Hi! I'm Hermes, messenger of the gods! It's my job to keep them informed, and therefore you too! You've made it to Camp Half Blood alive. I hope. Anyway, be proud! That is no small feat.

You are a demigod.

You're probably wondering: how can I be sure? How is this possible?

Well over time you may have noticed your body changing. This is perfectly normal and-"

"Hermes!" a female voice hissed, "wrong talk!"

The cartoon blushed, "Whoops. Sorry. Like I was saying. A sign of being a demigod is ADhD. You have a short attention span and are hyper and aware of everything because you have inborn battle reflexes. Be thankful, these keep you alive. Another sign is dyslexia. You find it hard to read English, French, Japanese, Russian, Spanish, Estonian, German, Cantonese, Arabic, Dutch, whatever because your brain is made to read ancient Greek. Demigods have some trait from their godly parent, like a child of Demeter may be an excellent farmer, while a child of Zeus may have a stormy attitude."

I noticed Thalia smiled smugly at that.

"Another sign you are a demigod is that you may have almost been killed recently. Do not be alarmed, that is perfectly normal, and is bound to happen again."

"Hermes! You're trying to help them!"

"Sorry Athena!" The man huffed. "As I was saying! When you turn twelve your 'scent' becomes stronger. Unfortunately, this cannot be covered up with DKNY perfume, no matter how much Aphrodite children tell you otherwise. Your scent is what attracts monsters. And monsters are very much real. The Echidna, the cyclopes, are all real. And they will try to kill you.

You may be thinking 'this isn't real'. But it is. Because we are.

The Greek myths you've been taught and simply shrugged off are true. The gods, Zeus, Hera, me, are all real, as well as the monsters, the heroes, the creatures.

When gods have, er, relationships with humans, they often result in you. You are half mortal, half Olympian. You are a half-blood, a demigod, a hero. That's why you're here, at Camp Half Blood. Camp is a safe haven, a training center of sorts for young heroes. It is run by none other than trainer extraordinaire, Chiron, and the god of wine, Dionysus. You might see satyrs running around with their woodland magic, naiads in the lake, dryads in the trees, and monsters in the forests. You'll see fellow demigods learning weaponry, arts, learning to control their powers. Camp Half Blood is a good place. Some kids consider it home, and stay here year round. Others brave the outside world during school and return in the summer. The next step is being claimed. You're godly parent will acknowledge you and you can move into their cabin and meet your new half-brothers and sisters.

You're new life may seem exciting or even scary. But I say, and this is not from the script, that it will all make sense someday. If you have anymore questions please ask your friendly neighborhood Spiderman. I mean, satyr. Who wrote this!

Ah, never mind. But seriously, thank you. And have fun."

The film blacked out and the lights flickered back on. Thalia looked at me.

"Freaked out?"

"Not even a little." I admitted. Sure it was a lot to take in, but things could be worse.

"Really? No cries of 'this is a mistake' or demands of proof?"

I shook my head, "All I want to know is when I'll be claimed."

Thalia looked uncomfortable with the question but admitted, "Maybe soon, maybe never. You're parent was already a little late claiming you. Three years too late."

I shrugged, "I'm not very claimable. I can wait."

"Okay little Miss Sunshine. It's getting late, let's get you to the Hermes cabin."

We stepped out of the theater. The campers were returning from a white building. In the late evening sun, I saw everything with brand new eyes. There was a man mounted on a horse, no, a man who was a horse, talking to a girl who was half in, half out of a tree trunk. A young man sprinted past us, clutching an espresso. Did I mention he had goat legs? I had to resist from yelling out "Hello, Mr. Tumnis!" He had the red scarf and everything. That reminded me of an picture I saw of a young Robert Pattinson wearing a scarf but no shirt and the caption said 'Put something on, we're not in Narnia.' That was actually pretty funny but once I saw-

I was broken from this ADD moment by Thalia yanking me out of the way of a running boy. He was dressed entirely in black, which even I thought was a bit much. I thought he was chasing a butterfly I'd seen earlier. Actually, he was being chased by a screaming girl with a red bandanna. The boy caught my eye for just a second and I had to keep from yelping. It was a bit scary, eyes so full of mischief and mayhem. At the same time it was a bit mesmerizing.

"Who was that?" I asked Thalia.

"Trouble."

"Trouble seems awfully familiar..."

"Oh no, Aline. You're swooning. Don't swoon. Please, swoon at anyone but him!"

"It's nothing," I lied. At that moment, a girl walked by humming along to a Jonas Brothers song. I assumed she was an 'Aphrodite girl' based on her looks and her music choice.

"_Now I'm speechless, over the edge_  
_I'm just breathless_ _I never thought that I'd catch this love bug again_  
_Hopeless, head over heels in the moment_  
_I never thought that I'd get hit by this love bug again_"

Thalia led me to the cabins: me humming, her glowering. When we passed Cabin Three, a low gray building, I got a whiff of sea water and veered away before the panic attack could start. We stopped in front of Cabin Eleven. It was a really old building, rundown but I could tell it was loved. It was painted pine green and had a caduceus hanging over the doorway. The caduceus was the sign of Hermes, patron god of medics.

Two boys burst through the door. The one on the left said:

"Hi, I'm Connor."

The one on the right:

"Hi, I'm Travis."

They were twins. Mischievous looking twins. Mischievous looking twins who were the sons of the god of thieves and tricksters. They reminded me of Alec and Griffin back home. Which reminded me to keep an eye on them.

"Regular or unclaimed?" Connor asked, ignoring me.

"Unclaimed." Thalia responded.

"Well looks like he got here right on time."

"He? On time?" I asked incredulously.

Thalia started chuckling. "Aline's fifteen, geniuses."

The twins began laughing, too. "No offense but you look like a twelve year old boy."

"Oh yeah, cause elfish features are so much better!"

"Calm down." Connor rolled his eyes.

"If you're not claimed, you're probably going to have to wait a little longer. Get used to living with us." Travis joked. I hoped. Connor gestured to me and I followed them inside. There were rows of bunks, desks, and cabinets and in one corner, the most video game systems I'd ever seen. Besides the twins there were three girls and two boys. One of the girls and one of the boys waved, but the others ignored me.

"You can have the bunk next to Sara." Connor pointed to the girl who'd said hello. I nodded, and Thalia gave me a hug.

"You'll be fine. See you in the morning."

That night, I fell asleep to songs and dreams full of beautiful eyes, head over heels, and annoying, little love bugs.

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**Watched Eclipse trailer for the first time. Tried to resist urge to strangle Bella Swan. Did not succeed. Fragments are friends. (Update 11/27/10: I don't remember who told me this but they said Hermes wasn't god of doctors. But he was the gods of roads and patron to those who used them, like merchants, travelers... and doctors. But I'll put 'medics' to appease.)**


	8. 8 A Boy Named Trouble

**Author's Note: Sup! Just to let you know Nico's going to be a bit of a... psychopath in this story. BUT not completely off the deep end just, you know, crazy sometimes. Okay scratch that. Let's just say he'll be mean and angst-y sometimes. Not as crazy as other characters (coughcoughHINTcoughcough).**

**It's the moment everyone been asking for, her first encounter with Nico.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians or any related characters. I do own Aline, Sara, and Mathias. I do not own That's Not My Name by the Ting Tings.**

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The answer was being flipped off my mattress.

That's how I was woken that morning. I was dreaming about Tanner- not that way- and we were back in California laughing at the mall. Suddenly, I was on the dusty floor. I rubbed my eyes and blinked at the matching faces staring down at me. Travis and Connor smiled slyly.

"Good morning newb! You have officially been initiated to Camp Half Blood."

"Tipping the newbie's a camp tradition!" Travis-or was it Connor-winked.

"I'm touched." And I kind of was. The boys told me to get down to the showers and breakfast was in an half an hour. I got ready and sat on the cabin's stairs, watching other filing cabins. I noticed all the Nyx kids looked goth, all the Athena kids were blondes, and all the Apollo kids had gold auras. I looked at them and felt a sense of... wistfulness. I wanted to be with them, strumming ukuleles and chatting animatedly. I had a vague idea of where I belonged but...I was broken from the dream by a tap on my shoulder. I looked up to see Sara.

"Come on," she gestured to where the rest of the cabin was lined up. We fell in step, I walked in front of her. She careened into me however, when I stopped.

"What was that!" she asked, rubbing her nose.

I pointed to the thirteenth cabin, where a boy was exiting.

"Who is that?"

"Trouble. And you'll be in it if you don't keep walking!" We ran to catch up with the others. Connor-or was it Travis- led me through the meal routine: only sit at your cabin table, accept the food from the nymphs, make the sacrifice.

The meal was quiet. Sara made no attempts at conversation and I dismissed most questions from the twins. I scanned the hall for Thalia and I finally found her. She sat alone at the biggest table: Zeus.

That made a lot of sense. I waved to her and she smiled. She made a signal meaning 'meet me later'. I really wanted to talk to her. The twins had offered to clarify things but I wanted to know from my best friend. Chiron and Dionysus made announcements.

"There will be a capture the flag game this week," the god of wine said and the hall cheered, "Yes, yes, hopefully a few of you will be killed. There are way too many of you now."

Travis-who-might-have-actually-been-Connor grinned at me, "You should get excited. It'll be fun!"

"Okay," I said, "what do we do now?"

"We head back to our cabins and get ready for activities."

We filed back to the cabins and did the morning cleaning. I swept in front of the cabin and took the opportunity to survey the courtyard. There were some kids playing basketball against satyrs. Some Ares kids were wrestling and Aphrodite kids were watching them in disgust, checking their hair in handheld mirrors. Hecate kids were practicing spells that helped the Demeter cabin grow flowers in their window boxes. I saw a group of Apollo kids watching on as Kayla, read a Frost poem. I recognized it and mouthed along. That's when I saw a very amazing thing. I dropped the broom and ran over to these two kids.

The couple was college aged: the boy, fairly cute with green eyes and jet black hair, the girl, a blonde, and they were flying. Flying, pivoting, twirling in their own personal hurricane. Crystal blue salt water swirled around them, like ribbons around a gift. Lifting them in the air, and spraying them and the crowd gathered around them. It was beautiful. And I promptly turned and vomited in some bushes. Yeah, I guess watching was a bad idea. And a waste of bacon. I held my stomach and I felt a hand on my back.

"Are you okay?" they said.

I wiped my mouth with my hand, feeling disgusting, "I'm okay. I just saw that boy and..." I didn't want to finish.

"You're scared of water, huh?"

"Terrified." I admitted. I looked up to the face of my corespondent, and almost puked again. It was the cab driver. I stood up quickly and backed away,

"Hey! I know you!" I yelled.

He raised his hands in an I'm-innocent way, "This isn't what it looks like!"

"No, I think it is," I said. Those furry pants I had noticed, they were donkey legs and hooves!

"I'm goat, not a donkey, a goat!" he bleated, stomping his cloven hove. Guess he'd read my mind...

"Alright, you're a satyr, congrats! But I should be the angry one here. You tried to kidnap me!"

"I did not! I am Grover Underwood, current Lord of the Wild. I am above such things," he said, offended. "Do you always jump to such conclusions?"

I nodded, "Pretty much."

"I had a fairly good idea you were a demigod and I could smell the monsters coming. I wanted to bring you here and save you a month or two of trouble."

"Why didn't you say that?"

"You don't go around telling every stranger with a drachma and a weird, gold aura that they're a half-blood!"

"Hey, what's going on here?" The green eyed boy approached us, rubbing his hair dry with a blue towel. I admired his chiseled face for a second before the scent of the sea short circuited me.

"You need a shower." I said to him, "And I'm sorry. Thanks for trying to help," I said to the Grover. I ran off.

"What happened to Demeter's bushes?" I heard in the distance. It was way past time to meet Thalia at the Big House. I ran there and saw her talking to someone.

"Hey Thals," I said. She smiled,

"Hey! You made sure to tell Connor you were with me right?"

"Uh. No."

"You have to tell your cabin consuler when ever you leave. You'll get into trouble. Next time okay."

"Yeah, yeah. Thanks Mom," I turned to the person she was talking to, "Who's this?"

"Aline," Thalia introduced, "this is my friend Mathias."

"Hello," I held out my right hand. My left arm was still weak.

"Hi," he blushed, but not taking my hand. Mathias was really cute, in an overgrown puppy dog gone scene MySpace star way. He had big, sad brown eyes framed by big glasses and a cute face framed by wavy hair. He was about as tall as Chiron in horse form. He was pale, which made me wonder if he was one of those people that spent all their time on online quest games. The graphic t-shirt he wore only confirmed that: some MMORPG that read: "Deus Ex Machina".

"'God from the machine'," I translated, then grinned, "Son of Hephaestus?"

He nodded. Thalia rolled her eyes, muttered "_hopeless_" and said she had to make a report to Olympus. She left us. It was an awkward silence. Mathias studied his shoes and I looked around. I was about ready to start talking about the weather when I saw a black clad figure heading through the forest. He was everywhere, wasn't he? I turned to Mathias,

"Who is that?" I asked.

Mathias got a faraway look in his eyes as he followed my gaze, "Trouble," was all he said. I let out a sigh of frustration. I was beginning to think that was his real name! I took off toward toward the woods, hoping I wouldn't lose sight of the boy.

"Where are you going?" Mathias called.

"Where does it look?"

"No one ever goes into the forest unarmed. It's dangerous!"

"I'll be fine. It was nice meeting you!" I called. I had meant one of the things I said.

The forest was full of winding trails and small fields. I ignored the claw marks and scorches on some of the trees. Dryads giggled and occasionally gave me directions. I decided to trust them. If they were lying, I'd stop being a tree hugger. But as I went deeper into the woods the trails stopped and the nymphs giggling died out. My heart fluttered and my head ached as the grass grew thicker and branches loomed not far overhead. Then, it all went away.

The trees stopped abruptly, ending in the most beautiful place I'd ever seen. Remember the lake where Philoctetes was flirting in naiads in _Hercules_? It was that times ten. Light filtered through scarce branches and the sun was a gold orb on the lake water. Quarry rocks and boulders were strew all over, with miniature pine trees growing between. Still all of that dimmed in comparison to the boy sitting there. He had his feet in the water and his head in the clouds, by the expression on his face. His face was angular but boyish, long eyelashes and a nose that had broken at least once. Something caught my attention, a blue vein under pale skin. It ran from his eye down his cheek, eerily similar to a tear. I had to think long and hard whether he was any god I knew for he was too good-looking to be a demigod. He had hair that reached his shoulders and the color matched his black shirt. Which happened to be lying next to him. His hair was wet, like he'd been swimming. In his shorts, thank the gods. Ew. Creeper moment.

It was the boy I seen running around camp.

The boy who'd saved my life in New York.

The boy called trouble.

I was startled by the sudden pounding of my heart. I ducked behind a tree, hoping he couldn't hear my heartbeat. Why was I so scared? I'd been looking for him hadn't I? Still, I finally recognized him! I told myself to go say 'hi' and thank him for saving my life, nothing much. I hoped he wouldn't be freaked out that I'd appeared from nowhere. I took a deep breath-

"Hello."

-and let it out. The boy was looking at me. It was the first time I'd really seen him and the word danger was written all over his face.

"H-how'd you know I was here?"

"You're not exactly quiet."

I blushed beside myself. He yanked on his shirt and stood up. He walked over to me and I slunk away.

"Why were you following me?" he asked. I couldn't tell if he was angry or curious. Maybe both?

"It's just... I'm new here but I see you around a lot. Everyone calls you trouble."

"It fits," he smiled wryly, "but that's not my name."

"I know what you mean," I babbled, his smile turning my brain to mush, "my name's Aline by the way but everyone says it a-line which is super embarrassing 'cause its pronounced uh-lean but I shouldn't be complaining about pronunciation cause I can't say the Greek god of the winds who I just found out is real but the point is I sympathy with the whole name thing because:

'_They call me 'hell'_ _They call me 'Stacey'_ _They call me 'her'_ _They call me 'Jane'_ _That's not my name_'."

There was a pause, "It's Nico," is all he said. I sighed inwardly, happy I could stop referring to him as 'trouble' and 'the boy in black'.

"Why are you here?"

"Isn't it obvious? I'm a half-blood like you."

"You shouldn't be here."

"In the forest? I know that."

"No. At camp."

"What do you mean? I belong at Camp Half Blood, just like you."

"I don't belong here and neither do you."

"What are you talking about? I know you. I've met you!"

"You're bringing a lot trouble by staying at camp."

"Why are you suddenly sprouting prophecies? You saved my life and I just want to say thanks!"

Nico stared me in the eyes for a long time,

"You're not welcome."

* * *

**So Nico and Aline are going to have some problems. But I promise I wouldn't make him too evil. Just evil enough.**

**P.S. Anyone read **_**FANG**_**? Message me if you did.**


	9. AN: I Ask The Gods,er,Reviewers For Help

**I know, I hate these things too. **

**I'm taking a temporary break to work on a request, finish my Maximum Ride story, and write the next eight or so chapters of this. I'll be back on FanFiction by the end of my spring break, okay?**

**But first a few questions:**

**1. Do you want Thalia to stay in the story since-technically-she shouldn't be there?**

**2. Do you **_**want**_** to know the reason Aline's Olympian parent didn't claim her?**

**3. Do you want this story split into two? The story takes a 'drastic' change in the middle, but I don't know if its that big of a deal.**

**4. Are you okay with character deaths?**

**5. Are you okay with slashes but not, like, graphic ones?  
**

**6. Do you like Aline?**

**7. What should I do to make it better?**

**8. Should I change the title?**

**9. Have you figured out her parent yet?  
**

**10. Are you filling out the census?**

**Haha, ignore the last one. I can't help being a loser. Thank you readers and reviewers. **


	10. 10 To Tell Tales of a Tree

**Author's Note: I'm back, yah, but with less frequent updates, nah. I've got track practice everyday but Friday and tons of homework which is unfair. Who can focus when summer is so close?**

**I took in your responses, and it was a lot of help. Aline seems likable, which is a relief. As for a slash, wait and see. I will not interfere with canon pairings. Thalia isn't my favorite either and, yes, she should be with the Huntresses so I'll do something with her later... Thanks again!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians or any related characters. I do not own Face Down by The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus.

* * *

**

The answer was solid shadows.

Nico stepped right through them, disappearing, leaving me staring after.

"_You saved my life_."

"_You're not welcome_."

What did he mean? That I was better off dead? He didn't even know me! Did he? And he'd said that I'd messed everything by coming to camp. I didn't know anything yet. _Keep calm_, I told myself. It was getting late and I didn't want to be caught in the woods after dark. The nymphs, feeling bad for me, helped me through the forest. I stumbled out by the Big House. Thalia was there scolding Mathias. She saw me and frowned,

"Didn't he tell you not to go in there?"

"Yeah. But don't blame him. I never listen to anyone," I turned to Mathias, "I'm sorry. Kind of a bad first impression, right? Maybe we can hang out again some time?"

He nodded, "Sure."

Glad I made amends, I turned to Thalia. "Can I talk to you?"

"Fine." We said goodbye to Mathias and headed toward the armory, where my current cabin would be.

"You got hurt," Thalia pointed out. She pointed at my cheek and I put a hand over it. There was a scratch. I reached for my pocket where, growing up with Tanner, I learned to always keep bandages. Thalia frowned,

"It's gone."

Startled, I put my hand back to my cheek. The cut was gone.

"Weird but convenient." I said, shrugging. The Hermes cabin was in the armory fixing up their Greek battle armor for an upcoming capture-the-flag game. Thalia covered for me, telling the twins we had to contact Olympus. It was partially true. I asked Connor why they needed armor for such a simple, friendly game. He looked at me like I was crazy. Then I actually surveyed the walls: an assortment of spears, swords, bows and other nasty weapons. I whistled under my breath,

"Maybe I should get some, too."

Connor laughed, "Ya think? I'll sign us up for swordsmanship tomorrow. You look like you'd be good at that."

"Uh huh? I'm not trusting your judgement based on looks anymore."

"Fair deal. Come here, I'll help you choose some armor." He lead me to a row of military lockers, each one filled with shining bronze plated leather protectants. He explained that some kids got armor as a gift from their parent but most of it was made and tended to by the Hephestues cabin. I tried on a couple. Connor was impressed that I actually knew what everything was and how to put it on. I explained my history obsession. I finally chose a breastplate with a gold gleam and arm guards. Our time in the armory was up and we were scheduled to be at the lake. The lake. A large body of water. With spirits that weren't always nice.

I clutched my stomach and grabbed Connor's arm, "Ugh, I don't think I'm feeling well. I'm kind of dizzy."

"Will you be alright? Should I take you to the infirmary?"

"No, no, you go swim. I think I'll lie in the cabin. I never got to finish putting my stuff away anyhow." That was a lie, but, hey, all in the sake of my sanity, right? He agreed and once they were out of sight I ran back to the cabin.

I laid on my bunk and pulled out my radio. Thalia had known me well enough to know to save that too. In case you hadn't noticed, music was an obsession. More than that actually: it was my whole life. Ever since I was little. Back in Alta Sansa, that was the town I grew up in in SoCal, I was six years old and my mom bought me a flute. I sucked at it. When I was seven we went down to the beach, me staying far, far from the shore, and saw an old man playing drums from Jamaica. I stood watching him until the sun began to set under the waves. I was just as absorbed in the sounds as he was. Finally, he looked up and blinked, noticing me for the first time. I asked him if I could try, and after a long time pondering he said yes. I tapped out a beat. I was okay, not as good as him.

"You'll be better one day," he said solemnly, "music is in your blood."

Mom made us leave then, she needed to get ready for her shift at the hospital tomorrow. I never saw the old man again. I'd never really thought about what he'd said, but now I did.

"_Music's in your blood_."

Again, when I was eight my mom bought me a violin. I broke it within a day. It was an accident. Okay maybe not; I let Griffin and Alec run over it with their bikes. On the bright side, it made a much better sound when it broke than whenever I'd played it. I tried the harp, the guitar, the cello, the piano, the saxophone, even the oboe. I wasn't great at any of them, it just didn't come as easily as the sounds took over me. Then I tried singing. I practiced in my room, in the car. I was never very good. Then one day when I was nine my mom took me to the hospital where she worked. The patients liked me, "a little ball of sunshine" they called me.

"_A very weird, very ADD, very lovable ball of sunshine_," my favorite Bethany would say. She was about seventeen, a frequent patient though she never stayed for long. She always came with bruises and bloody lips. I'd look up at her, eyes wide and ask, "What happened?" She smile at me and hesitantly say, "Alan." One day she was recovering from a concussion and I sang to her,

"_Hey, girl, you know you drive me crazy_ _one look puts the rhythm in my hand._  
_Still I'll never understand why you hang around_ _I see what's going down.  
__Cover up with makeup in the mirror_ _tell yourself, it's never gonna happen again_  
_You cry alone and then he swears he loves you_"

Bethany was as surprised as me. I'd never even heard the song before but she told me to keep singing,

"_Do you feel like a man when you push her around?_  
_Do you feel better now as she falls to the ground?_  
_Well I'll tell you my friend, one day this world's going to end_ _as your lies crumble down, a new life she has...  
__Face down in the dirt, she said,_ _'This doesn't hurt', she said,_ _'I finally had enough' _"

She got a happy, distant look on her face, "Thanks Aline."

I didn't understand, so I squeezed her hand and said 'see you again'. I didn't. Around twelve I realized it was the words I loved. Music, the sounds, the melodies were great by themselves. But the words, how they spoke, how they flowed, how they reached out to me. So I'd go off and get lost in lyrics, a very content sort of lost, until someone found me and drew me out.

Like now. With the radio by my ears, the singer was talking to me; he was telling me about longing for distractions, for love, for something to depend on. Weren't we all? I was drawn out by someone shaking my shoulder. It was Thalia.

"Hey! I wanted to talk to you but I was busy," I told her, sitting up.

She sat at the foot of my bed and for a moment it was like being at Darkwoud again.

"Shouldn't you be at the- ah, right. Lake. Water. You. Not a good mix."

"You can see the result in the rosebushes."

She wrinkled her nose, and I laughed.

"What'd you want to talk about Aline?"

"Well, I know the Stoll brothers pretty well now, and even Sara. But what about you? You're the daughter of Zeus. That must be... interesting."

She laughed dryly, running a hand through her black spikes, "That's one word for it. How long have you got?"

I told her about an hour.

"Well, my actress mother was a drinker. Eventually she got herself killed in a driving accident, but that was after I ran away at twelve. On the run I met Luke Castellan", her eyes started to shine and her voice hitched, "He was something. I was in an abandoned house I'd been hiding in for a couple of days. I'm looking through the cabinets, suspiciously stocked, and suddenly there's a arm around my throat and a sweet voice at my ears telling me,

"This is my place."

I step on their foot, elbow them in the gut. I skitter away and turn around. Its a boy not any older than you. And he looks at me, just as stunned, and we both yell 'Who they hell are you?' That, was the start of a great but splintering friendship... Grover had orders to get only me but he couldn't leave behind little Annabeth and Luke... the Cyclopes's lair... turned me into a tree to preserve me. Years passed, Luke joined the Titan lord Kronos and betrayed me, betrayed us all. You could say he 'went over to the dark side' but I could understand why... I wouldn't be the child of the prophecy. I knew it wasn't meant to be me so I became a Huntress. I've given up boys but I'm immortal. Instead of being twenty-four like I should, I'll always be fifteen and 364 days unless I fall in battle. Actually, I'm Artemis's lieutenant... I got crushed by a freakin' statue of my stepmother so I wasn't in the throne room when it happened. But, gods, I wished I'd been. Luke gave his life for us because eventually he figured out what was right. If I was there, I would have told him so many things, things that would have Artemis strip me of my ranks," she laughed with no humor, "He made Percy promise that what he went through would never happen again, that every demigod would be claimed. That's why I really want to find your parent, Aline. To honor Luke's wish..."

The sun was halfway below the horizon. Dinner was probably over and my cabin would be wondering where I'd disappeared to again.

"Luke and I... I think we're different. Sure I want to be claimed, but for now, I'm happy being here. Being safe."

"Things can change."

I smiled, "They won't."

The corners of Thalia's mouth quirked up again. She excused herself and I turned back on the radio.

My cabin found me falling asleep to the song about something to depend on. Tomorrow, I had my first sword training session.

* * *

**The last song was Walk on Water Or Drown by :heart: Mayday Parade :heart:. Bethany's story made me sad to write but, hey, in the end Aline helped her break up with an abusive boyfriend. Sorry to anyone named Bethany or Alan but I picked the first names I thought of.**

**Reviews are loved, flames hated but accepted.**

**P.S. Wonderwall by Oasis just came on.**

_**I don't believe that anybody feels the way I do, about you now ;)**_


	11. 11 I'm Almost Beheaded Again

**Author's Note: Short-ish chapter, my apologizes. The next I update will (hopefully) be much better, because I will write when I have an actual moment of inspiration. Well there's only twenty-three days of school left, as of yesterday. So to celebrate the song is: 23 Days by Framing Hanley.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson or any related characters. As of now I do own the Kane Chronicles. I do not own 23 Days by Framing Hanley.**

**

* * *

**

The answer was capture the flag.

It was what everyone was so excited about and what_ I_ was dreading. I had a chance to try fighting with knives and although I did better at that than with swords, I still sucked. So unless I could fight with a volleyball I wasn't going to be much help. I was pondering the chances Chiron would let me defend with suntan oil slicks when Connor tapped me on the shoulder and told me to get dressed. And by dressed he meant enarmored. I put on the things from the armory, along with my lucky combat boots decorated with Sharpied roses, and the cabin clunked down to the woods.

There was a large amount of campers looking over a larger amount of weapons. Bows and arrows, spears, weighted nets, maces, long swords, short swords and other nasty looking things. I picked up a knife about the length of my forearm. I really hoped I wouldn't have to use it. My stomach dropped when I saw a girl with a gleaming Japanese sword, a katana. That's it; I was so dead, or at least really wounded. I practically jumped out of my boots when someone behind me said,

"That's Katana. And she _knows_ how to use that thing but I guess she would considering it's her namesake."

I whirled around. Thalia was grinning at me. I relaxed.

"Are you ready for the game?" she asked.

"Not even a little."

"I didn't know you fought with a knife."

"I don't. I can't use anything with a blade and I didn't have time to learn anything else! This game is not going to go well for me. All the cuts and bruises and broken bones, _ugh_. Can you do me a favor and make sure Kayla is free after this?"

Thalia thought for a moment. She took off her necklace. I hadn't notice she still wore it. She handed the jewelry to me and it lengthened into a familiar whip.

"Are you sure? You aren't even armed."

"You need it more than I do. Besides I've got this," she reached over her shoulder, a gesture I'd seen her do a hundred times. But over her shoulder came a bow, one I had not seen a hundred times. It was a beauty: a recurve bow that was almost half her size, embossed with a design of pine tree leaves. It glowed silver, like moonlight was trapped within it. Slung across her back was a pouch filled with arrows.

"Cool," was all I could say.

Chiron told us to get into our teams and discuss the final battle plans. Everyone on my team was wearing helmets with blue plumes. Right now the flag had the sign of Hephaestus on it. With that reminder I tried looking for that boy, Mathias, but I couldn't find him. I shrugged and Percy went over the plan one more time. He knew I couldn't do much so he put me halfway between the flag, which was at the edge of a creek, and the border. My job was 'try' and stop anyone that came my way but leave most of it to the others. We got in formation and Chiron blew the horn.

The game begin. There were battle cries, all phrases in Greek. I stood stationary, hoping again that nobody would come my way. Of course someone did. It was a young boy I hadn't seen before. He tore past me, quick as the wind, and I was left staring. Cut me some slack: he was fast, and I _so_ didn't want to hurt a little kid. I hoped someone else would get him before he got the flag. I heard people fighting around me but no one ever got close enough for me to have to fight as well. I let my guard down and sat under a tree trying to turn the sounds of yells, cheers, and clashing metals into a symphony. I was on the verge of dozing off- that would have been embarrassing- when someone said,

"It's not good to fall asleep on the job."

I bolted up, looking to my left, right, over and even under me. No one was there. I had the knife in my clumsy left hand and Thalia's whip in my other. I looked around cautiously. I wasn't sure if I'd heard some monster or something else. I had a sinking feeling it wasn't a normal opponent. Indeed it was not.

Out of the shadows came a boy. He was dressed in loose black armor. He carried a black sword and it practically radiated death. There was a ring on his finger, not his actual ring finger I noted, that was shaped like a skull. At first it looked like the sort of thing you got from a toy dispenser in the mall but it flickered into something that seemed more ancient, more powerful. I inched back a little.

Nico was staring at the whip like I'd been staring at his ring.

"Didn't know you were the dominatrix type," he quipped.

"I-I'm not...?," I stuttered but it ended like a question. What was wrong with my tongue! And how in the world had he appeared without me hearing a thing! He leaned against a tree, seemingly forgetting about the battles going on around us. He was the first to speak,

"So how's camp life," _even though I still think you shouldn't be here_. The last part was unspoken but implied.

"Oh, you know:

'_This town's not much of a friend  
__After twenty-three days  
__My patience has reached it's end_'

I'm happy, except for some people that shall not be named," I wondered if Nico knew I was talking about him.

From the gleam in his eye, he did. Yet all he said was, "I know the rest of that verse."

I cringed mentally. Of course he did. I retorted, "Well that part of it isn't strictly true."

_But I'd take you back anyway_  
_Hold your breath_  
_You make the perfect sounds_  
_This is what a love is made of_  
_And baby you are missing out_

"Would you like to see? Take a breath, you're missing out."

I glared at him and wondered whether stomping off would get me in trouble. But no, I would hold my ground and Nico would see that he could not get to me that easily. I was in the middle of laughing triumphantly in my mind when Nico tried to kill me.

Okay, maybe 'tried to kill me' isn't the right phrase. 'Tried to run me through with his sword' is more like it. I mean what the heck! One moment he was annoying the Hades out of me, and the next he was lunging at me, bringing his sword down in a deadly arc. I shrieked and ducked- I was getting good at that- as the blade impaled itself in the tree trunk above me. Around the gash little ice crystals started to form. Nico pulled it out, laughing. It wasn't the mad laugh I'd heard the first time I'd seen him but it still sent shivers through me.

Not like _that_.

I rose and pointed my knife at him.

"What the hell are you doing?" I spat.

"We're playing a game right?"

He struck at me again but this time I was mildly ready. I raised the knife above my head and Nico's blade slid off it. There was a shower of sparks but I rolled to the side, out of the way. Nico brought the sword down at me again but this time I raised my right hand. The whip struck Nico on his shoulder, opening up a gash. I said, "Sorry" before I remembered he was trying to hurt me. He just smiled at me, impressed, and switched his sword to his left hand. This time I was prepared. I wrapped the whip around the blade and kicked Nico in the stomach. His sword skittered away and he hit the ground shoulder blades first. There was a sickening crack and for a second I was afraid I really had injured him. After a moment I knelt next to him and snapped my fingers in front of his closed eyes.

I don't know how he did it but he was up and crouched behind me in an instant. The knife he pulled from my hand was at my throat. I squeezed my eyes shut and told my heart to stop beating so loud, so fast. He wouldn't hurt me, right? I mean, he definitely hated me but he wouldn't kill me, right? Would he?

"Game over," his scarcely sweet voice said.

* * *

**Is that a cliffhanger? Another chapter soon, I swear. Reviews are loved. Flames are hated but accepted. They're good for making smores.**


	12. 12 Right?

**Author's Note: Short-ish chapter, my apologizes. The next I update will (hopefully) be much better, because I will write when I have an actual moment of inspiration. Well there's only twenty-three days of school left, as of yesterday. So to celebrate the song is: 23 Days by Framing Hanley.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson or any related characters. As of now I do own the Kane Chronicles. I do not own 23 Days by Framing Hanley.**

**

* * *

**

The answer was capture the flag.

It was what everyone was so excited about and what_ I_ was dreading. I had a chance to try fighting with knives and although I did better at that than with swords, I still sucked. So unless I could fight with a volleyball I wasn't going to be much help. I was pondering the chances Chiron would let me defend with suntan oil slicks when Connor tapped me on the shoulder and told me to get dressed. And by dressed he meant enarmored. I put on the things from the armory, along with my lucky combat boots decorated with Sharpied roses, and the cabin clunked down to the woods.

There was a large amount of campers looking over a larger amount of weapons. Bows and arrows, spears, weighted nets, maces, long swords, short swords and other nasty looking things. I picked up a knife about the length of my forearm. I really hoped I wouldn't have to use it. My stomach dropped when I saw a girl with a gleaming Japanese sword, a katana. That's it; I was so dead, or at least really wounded. I practically jumped out of my boots when someone behind me said,

"That's Katana. And she _knows_ how to use that thing but I guess she would considering it's her namesake."

I whirled around. Thalia was grinning at me. I relaxed.

"Are you ready for the game?" she asked.

"Not even a little."

"I didn't know you fought with a knife."

"I don't. I can't use anything with a blade and I didn't have time to learn anything else! This game is not going to go well for me. All the cuts and bruises and broken bones, _ugh_. Can you do me a favor and make sure Kayla is free after this?"

Thalia thought for a moment. She took off her necklace. I hadn't notice she still wore it. She handed the jewelry to me and it lengthened into a familiar whip.

"Are you sure? You aren't even armed."

"You need it more than I do. Besides I've got this," she reached over her shoulder, a gesture I'd seen her do a hundred times. But over her shoulder came a bow, one I had not seen a hundred times. It was a beauty: a recurve bow that was almost half her size, embossed with a design of pine tree leaves. It glowed silver, like moonlight was trapped within it. Slung across her back was a pouch filled with arrows.

"Cool," was all I could say.

Chiron told us to get into our teams and discuss the final battle plans. Everyone on my team was wearing helmets with blue plumes. Right now the flag had the sign of Hephaestus on it. With that reminder I tried looking for that boy, Mathias, but I couldn't find him. I shrugged and Percy went over the plan one more time. He knew I couldn't do much so he put me halfway between the flag, which was at the edge of a creek, and the border. My job was 'try' and stop anyone that came my way but leave most of it to the others. We got in formation and Chiron blew the horn.

The game begin. There were battle cries, all phrases in Greek. I stood stationary, hoping again that nobody would come my way. Of course someone did. It was a young boy I hadn't seen before. He tore past me, quick as the wind, and I was left staring. Cut me some slack: he was fast, and I _so_ didn't want to hurt a little kid. I hoped someone else would get him before he got the flag. I heard people fighting around me but no one ever got close enough for me to have to fight as well. I let my guard down and sat under a tree trying to turn the sounds of yells, cheers, and clashing metals into a symphony. I was on the verge of dozing off- that would have been embarrassing- when someone said,

"It's not good to fall asleep on the job."

I bolted up, looking to my left, right, over and even under me. No one was there. I had the knife in my clumsy left hand and Thalia's whip in my other. I looked around cautiously. I wasn't sure if I'd heard some monster or something else. I had a sinking feeling it wasn't a normal opponent. Indeed it was not.

Out of the shadows came a boy. He was dressed in loose black armor. He carried a black sword and it practically radiated death. There was a ring on his finger, not his actual ring finger I noted, that was shaped like a skull. At first it looked like the sort of thing you got from a toy dispenser in the mall but it flickered into something that seemed more ancient, more powerful. I inched back a little.

Nico was staring at the whip like I'd been staring at his ring.

"Didn't know you were the dominatrix type," he quipped.

"I-I'm not...?," I stuttered but it ended like a question. What was wrong with my tongue! And how in the world had he appeared without me hearing a thing! He leaned against a tree, seemingly forgetting about the battles going on around us. He was the first to speak,

"So how's camp life," _even though I still think you shouldn't be here_. The last part was unspoken but implied.

"Oh, you know:

'_This town's not much of a friend  
__After twenty-three days  
__My patience has reached it's end_'

I'm happy, except for some people that shall not be named," I wondered if Nico knew I was talking about him.

From the gleam in his eye, he did. Yet all he said was, "I know the rest of that verse."

I cringed mentally. Of course he did. I retorted, "Well that part of it isn't strictly true."

_But I'd take you back anyway_  
_Hold your breath_  
_You make the perfect sounds_  
_This is what a love is made of_  
_And baby you are missing out_

"Would you like to see? Take a breath, you're missing out."

I glared at him and wondered whether stomping off would get me in trouble. But no, I would hold my ground and Nico would see that he could not get to me that easily. I was in the middle of laughing triumphantly in my mind when Nico tried to kill me.

Okay, maybe 'tried to kill me' isn't the right phrase. 'Tried to run me through with his sword' is more like it. I mean what the heck! One moment he was annoying the Hades out of me, and the next he was lunging at me, bringing his sword down in a deadly arc. I shrieked and ducked- I was getting good at that- as the blade impaled itself in the tree trunk above me. Around the gash little ice crystals started to form. Nico pulled it out, laughing. It wasn't the mad laugh I'd heard the first time I'd seen him but it still sent shivers through me.

Not like _that_.

I rose and pointed my knife at him.

"What the hell are you doing?" I spat.

"We're playing a game right?"

He struck at me again but this time I was mildly ready. I raised the knife above my head and Nico's blade slid off it. There was a shower of sparks but I rolled to the side, out of the way. Nico brought the sword down at me again but this time I raised my right hand. The whip struck Nico on his shoulder, opening up a gash. I said, "Sorry" before I remembered he was trying to hurt me. He just smiled at me, impressed, and switched his sword to his left hand. This time I was prepared. I wrapped the whip around the blade and kicked Nico in the stomach. His sword skittered away and he hit the ground shoulder blades first. There was a sickening crack and for a second I was afraid I really had injured him. After a moment I knelt next to him and snapped my fingers in front of his closed eyes.

I don't know how he did it but he was up and crouched behind me in an instant. The knife he pulled from my hand was at my throat. I squeezed my eyes shut and told my heart to stop beating so loud, so fast. He wouldn't hurt me, right? I mean, he definitely hated me but he wouldn't kill me, right? Would he?

"Game over," his scarcely sweet voice said.

* * *

**Is that a cliffhanger? Another chapter soon, I swear. Reviews are loved. Flames are hated but accepted. They're good for making smores.**


	13. 13 We Let The Games Begin

**Author's Note: So I had a 'Holy ****, are you serious, that's so awesome' moment today and for that you get an update. And I've got my school band concert tonight! Yah!  
**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians or any related characters. I do not own Dungeons and Dragons, Fusion Fall, Fields of Fantasy or God of War. Or RuneScape. Or Don't Charge Me For The Crime by the (super awesome and completely good musicians) Jonas Brothers.  
**

* * *

The answer was to make up.

The next day lunch was over and everyone was heading back to their cabins when I spotted someone.

"Do we have free time right now?" I asked Connor. He nodded. I knew the entire cabin would be hanging at the lake or something so I excused myself. I approached Mathias and tapped him on the shoulder. He turned around and smiled lightly,

"Hey. Aileen right?"

"Aline," I corrected. I excused his mistake because the last time I talked to him I _had_ run away, "but hello anyway."

"Did Thalia make you come and talk to me again?"

"Nope. I'm here on my own free will. Remember that offer to 'hang out later'?"

"Yep."

"Wanna take it up?"

He looked around, "Sure. My cabins probably off to go and build sports cars or something. Not my thing."

"I could tell. So what do you want to do?"

"I don't know. What do you want to do?"

"Doesn't matter. Whatever you want to do."

"Wha- we could do this forever, couldn't we? Do you want to go to the sword arena, the lake, arts and crafts..." I suggested, hoping he would say 'no' to each. He shook his head,

"Not my things. What are you good at?"

"Pretty much anything not formerly listed."

He smiled a little more, "So you're staying in the Hermes cabin right?"

"Yeah."

He gestured to his shirt, an image of another MMORPG called 'Fusion Fall', "Think your friends will mind if we use their multimedia? They've got the only computers and video game systems in camp and while I also suck at everything formerly mentioned, I'm pretty good at RuneScape."

"Sure."

When we got to the cabin, I booted up a PC and asked Mathias what game he wanted to play. He suggested Dungeons and Dragons but I refused. Even I knew that would drive you to lameness beyond return. We settled on playing Fields of Fantasy, a roleplaying game. He led me through the steps and had me make a character. I finally decided on an archer elf. I was repeatedly killed by werewolves before Mathias showed me how to use the bow and arrows. Even if it wasn't real, the archery came naturally. On the other hand, it was weird to talk to other players. It was the first contact with the rest of the world since I'd got here. When I'd reached Level 6 I felt accomplished and let Mathias play instead watching over my shoulder. I thought I had become good but he was _amazing_.

"Cool. Maximum experience, triple bonus melee points, and a new Shadow Spinner Long Range Spear. The newbs at the guild are so not going to believe this raid," Mathias looked at me from over his glasses which had slid down his nose, "Er, you doesn't think I'm loser, do you?"

"Never," I said truthfully.

"Oh. Okay good. Would you like to try your hand at this?" He held up a game with a cover of a pale man in armor, standing before ruins of a Greek village. It took me a moment to make out the bold lettering.

"_God of War_?" I asked, "They made a video game about Ares?"

Mathias chuckled, "Not quite. It's based on Greek mythology, though it's a bit screwed up. But it's fun and Chiron, when he's in a good mood, considers it a training exercise. You get to battle monsters- and gods- who happen to be real."

"That's the thing," I began, glancing outside, "when I came here I acted like it didn't matter that all that stuff was real. I put on a brave face or maybe it was just the Fury poison. I tied not to be disturbed by goat-men and girls in trees. I battled with weapons you see in museums. Life right now feels more like a fairy tale because I haven't had any real experiences with the gods. And I know that there's a much darker, harder side to being a half-blood. But now everything I thought is different. I mean, I was kind of a Christian but if there are gods... I don't know what to believe," I bit my lip, "Sorry, I guess I'm being a bit heavy on emotions for a first play date."

I walked outside and sat on the stairs, still thinking. Mathias joined me and he said,

"I was eleven when I came here so I could adjust easier. Just pretend I was at a new school. But it must be a lot harder for you. You'd already had your world established. Being a demigod doesn't change... much. It does change a few things but not your whole life. And you shouldn't let it compromise what you believe in."

Mathias pushed up his glasses and I had to keep from smiling. I said thanks. He moved awkwardly like he was going to pat my shoulder but he didn't. We momentarily forgot the games and troubles and watched the half bloods in the courtyard. Occasionally I spotted a pegasus rider in the sky. I couldn't wait to try _that_. Then I spotted something equally as interesting.

"Who's that?" I asked.

"Who's who?" Mathias said. I pointed to an approaching figure. He looked young and every girl swooned when he past. Except for me. Even _Mathias_ looked a second from fainting but he regained conscious when he saw me staring. I wondered what that was about.

Mathias cleared his throat, "That's a son of Apollo. He's the most popular, well liked, crushed on demigod even though he's only sixteen and has only been at camp for a few months. I guess being French and a bit famous. He goes by CG, like the short term for computer-generated. Never bothered to tell anyone his real name."

"That's odd. Why is his nickname 'computer-generated'?"

"Cause's there's no other way he could be that perfect," Mathias said a little breathlessly. He blushed, catching what he'd said. I decided to ignore it for his sake, and checked out 'CG' instead. I _guess_ he was 'perfect'. He had golden blonde hair that I felt I needed sunglasses just to look at; it was so shiny. His bangs fell in messy perfection over his golden green eyes. He was wearing skinny jeans and a leather jacket that didn't make _any_ sense in this weather. He gave everyone he passed a dazzling white smile that was supposed to come off as shy and sweet. I knew he knew he was awesome though.

"Is he in a band?" I asked.

"Yep. Lead vocals and guitar."

"And is he the best archer at camp?"

"Second to none."

"And does he have a traumatic past that's enough to earn him pity but not scar him?"

"Uh-huh. Mother was kidnapped by a dracaena army."

"And he has the perfect Aphrodite girlfriend?"

"Nope. He's single and always searching."

"I'm over him," I scoffed. I got up and went back inside. Mathias followed. I popped the new disc into the computer. Mathias played a shooting game on one of the video consoles as I played the mythology game. The game was easy so I took a break and watched Mathias play. He was completely absorbed in the game but I said,

"You kind of remind me of someone."

"Hmm?"

"Not really someone but a song.

'_It's all a flash but who would know_  
_How the story would unfold_

_Don't charge me for the crime_  
_Wrong place, Wrong time_  
_Don't charge me for the crime_'."

He looked away from the screen long enough to raise an eyebrow at me.

"Well," I started blushing because when I said stuff like this it was really hard to explain, "you come off as a geek and I think you kind of are but you're a tough one. Like, you won't let anyone walk all over you but you're not necessarily rushing off to go fight on the front lines. You know where you're needed and you know your limits. A lucky things since a lot of people don't. Me, for one.

But that makes me think you'll be a really good demigod and stuff. Not that you'll have great epic poems about you- if anyone still writes those- but that future demigods will think, 'I kind of want to be like him'. Not that I mean flattery. My completely lost point is that sometimes you get involved and things go wrong but I won't charge you for the crime because you just happened to be there at the wrong time. But you'll be there at the right time more often. I hope."

I finally looked up from the floor and meet Mathias's brown eyes. They had a funny expression in them: something between humor and agreement.

"You must be really smart," he said finally.

I snorted because I was anything but. I slapped my hand over my mouth: he could continue.

"As I was saying, you must be kind of smart. You've hung out with me for what an hour or two? And you've figured out that much about me? I guess you're right."

"How?" I asked, because I really did want to get to know him. I think I liked him.

And so it was Mathias's turn to speak, "I had a little brother, actually _had_. He's not dead but he's good as gone. I don't know where he is now and I guess it's for the best.

I had two parents, a nice home, I was the only dungeon master at school, and it was a pretty good life. The best part was my brother Theo. He must be seven now. He always looked up to me which I thought was crazy. But I always helped him built toy cars and walk him home from school. But like you said 'who would know how this story would unfold'. Not well.

So one day I come home and I find my parents in the kitchen just _burned_ and barely conscious. Huddled by the sink with three giants standing above him is Theo. They're all either clutching mallets or flaming balls. I'm stuck but somehow I scream 'run'. The giants turn on me, I'm the one they really want, and a satyr comes out of nowhere. He plays this tune on reed pipes that makes all the plants in the house wrap around the giants. The satyr's telling me to come with him but I take Theo and _run_.

I knew eventually I'd have to find the guy that saved me but I needed to make sure Theo's safe. I run until I get to the next town, a much busier city. I drop Theo on the steps of an orphanage and a nun comes out. She sees how bad we are scarred and tells us to hurry in. I tell her to just take Theo and that I can't come back. I wanted so bad to stay with the family I had but I knew I was too much of a threat. I didn't want to leave him all alone but I know my place, right? So don't charge me for the crime."

It's only when he turns back around that I noticed the burn at the edge of his forehead to the back of his neck, strategically covered by his hair. A sad reminder. It was clear he didn't tell people that story often. I wanted to give him a hug or say I understood or just comfort him somehow. But I knew my place and I turned back to the computer.

I was in the process of getting eaten by a bronze dragon. "_Crap_," I muttered.

"Allow me," Mathias said, joining me. Our earlier solemness was forgotten. He started pounding keys and somehow my dryad wiggled her way out of the dragon's mouth and sent him to oblivion with a spell.

"Nymphs can't do that kind of magic!" I protested.

"The makers of _God of War_ don't know that," Mathias chuckled. We kept playing and were almost to Atlas's mountain when the rest of the cabin appeared.

"You seriously need to stop ditching us," Elizabeth said to me with her hands on her hips. She was pretty cocky for someone also half my age, "And don't you know campers aren't supposed to be alone in the cabins together?"

Sara scoffed, "Please nothing could happen to her with _him_."

Mathias's face turned red, "I better go," he mumbled, "Thanks for hanging with me," and left. I turned to Sara,

"What are you talking about? Better yet what is wrong with you!"

"What's wrong with you Ms. I-Don't-Need-To-Obey-Rules? Did you forget last night?"

Actually, I tried _very_ hard to forget it. Before I could finally hurt her and before Paxton could cut in Travis said,

"It's time for the campfire. Take it out on the marshmallows."

That lightened everyone's moods. We left and I forgot to turn off the computer. Though if I'd looked over my shoulder, I would have seen a pale, black robed god watching me.

**

* * *

No offense to real gamers of course ;) Mat's story was... weird to write. Too tragic or just too strange?  
**

**Only after writing this can I see how much Mathias resembles Simon (pale, glasses, dark hair, gamer) and CG resembles Jace (blonde, cocky, golden boy) from the Mortal Instruments. My obsession is transferring! Oh no! Don't worry though their 'endings' will be much different. Mwahahahahahahahaha.**

**Ha. You know the drill and wish me lucky at the performance!**


	14. 14 We're Off To See Atlas

**Author's Note: Ack lack of sleep, a-hole teachers, and the prospect of summer are making me cranky. So take the chapter and let me nap. Rawrzzzzz.**

**Disclaimer: I do not, have not, and will not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians or any related characters. I do not own We're Off To See The Wizard from The Wizard of Oz.

* * *

** The answer was about three weeks.

That was how long it took for things at camp to turn strange, which was astounding for two reasons. One: it usually takes way less time for things to get weird around me, and two: how much stranger could things get at a mythical camp full of mythical creatures for partly mythical kids?

The answer to _that _was very.

The first thing that irked me was Chiron. He was still nice of course. But sometimes, when I was seen or mentioned, he'd frown or his tail would twitch nervously. Once or twice I gone past the Big House to get to the volleyball courts and seen him talking in hushed voices with a young woman. I hadn't seen her before but she reminded me of Kayla with curly red hair and colorful clothes. Each time I past them I only caught bits and pieces of conversation, all in Greek.

"_ο κόσμος πρέπει να στραφούν σε αποχρώσεις του γκρι,_" or

"_Όταν η συγχώρεση χορηγείται και φαίνεται ότι όλα είναι επιλυθεί,_".

Things about shades of gray and forgiveness and resolve. It didn't make sense to me but, hey, I never heard the whole thing. But from then on whenever I felt I was being followed, I'd turn around and catch not only fleeting black eyes but green ones, too.

The second thing was Nico. I had absolutely no idea what to make of him. There were times when he was almost nice to me and times when I was sure he was bent on my destruction. An example of that was two weeks ago.

It was late in the afternoon, the time between free time and dinner and the Hermes cabin was at the lake so I was wandering by myself. I was that the edge of the woods nearest the strawberry fields and I heard voices, muffled and unclear, so I followed them. I entered the woods and there was Nico. I should have run, turned around and forgotten him but I was intrigued. He was standing in front of a shallow pit that bubbled with some murky concoction. Silvery things hovered over the pit but took no definite shape. Nico was chanting, low and quick, but he stopped and sighed.

"I can hear you there," he said aloud.

Well, my cover was blown, so I stepped a little behind him and looked him over. Nico didn't have any weapons, just empty bottles and pizza boxes, and he was twisting his skull ring around his finger. I stepped closer to the pit.

"What are you doing?" I asked, reaching out my hand to touch the slinking shapes.

"Summoning the dead," he said simply. I pulled my hand back.

"Anyone you care to see?" he offered.

"Like, anyone... dead?"

"No. Alive. Yes, dead. I think the sunlight is getting to you, Sunshine."

"Oh well you don't have to be so rude. Can I talk to my Grandmother Delilah?"

Nico nodded and resumed chanting. The stuff in the pit bubbled and one of the things started to take the plump, big haired form of my grandmother. She squinted at me through her half moon glasses.

"Allie? Allie dearest is that you?"

"It's Aline. But yeah, it's me. How are you Grandma?"

"Dead," and she laughed like it was the funniest thing in the world, "Well? Come give your dead granny a hug." She held out her squishy but steel strong arms and I instinctively stepped back. It was not needed. When she got close to me the mist that made her began to disperse. She stepped back and it reappeared.

"The deceased can't mingle with the energies of the living," Nico explained. Grandma Delilah noticed him for the first time,

"And who might this young man be Allie? Your beloved?"

I blanched. What! Nico smirked and mouthed '_beloved_'. I didn't know that word still existed! I glared at Nico and said to granny, "This is Nico. He's, um," I wasn't sure if I could call him a friend, "he's my neighbor." It wasn't totally lying.

"I see. It's nice to meet you sonny."

"The pleasure is all mine," Nico said politely. Okay, where did that come from!

"Aw, what a delightful boy," poor, delusional Grandmother Delilah squealed, "why I should tell you a story about when Allie was little. I know! The time Allie dearest almost buried herself in bubbles because she didn't want to get in the bath tub!"

My eyes widened so much it hurt. I shook my head, "That's okay Granny. I'm sure you have to go. I heard it's bingo night! Or is it the knitting circle? Either way you should leave. I love you and I'll tell mom 'hi' for you."

"No, no, it's quite alright. Now, where to start? Oh yes! So Allie dearest always had to bathe with a rubber ducky named Ducky and..."

Nico shrugged and listened while I wished to die. When Grandma was finished Nico was trying very hard to keep in his laughter.

"I had better be going. Goodbye Aline," she said, dispersing. I couldn't even appreciate that she had called me the right name. As soon as her ghost was gone Nico cracked up. His laugh was something. It was low and serious but hinting at a release, like the pieces Beethoven wrote around the time he was going deaf.

_Not _that I was thinking into it _that _much. Nico looked at me from tear-rimmed eyes. He opened his mouth to say something but doubled over, cracking up again. I flipped him the bird. He finally caught his voice and said,

"All of that over Mr. Ducky?"

"You would have down the same things!" I protested.

"Probably," he straightened up, "but now I have to tell the whole camp."

I shot him daggers, "You wouldn't."

He took off and before _I _knew what I was doing I tackled him and straddled his waist, hands secured over his head.

"There is no way in heck you will ever tell anyone that story lest you join your father's kingdom," I threatened. I thought I sounded quite scary but he smiled, really _smiled_. Then I realized what I was actually doing.

"My, my, my what do we have here?" a girl's voice said from over my shoulder. I leapt off Nico and stood a good distance away. Nico got up and calmly brushed grass from his clothes.

"Hello, big sister."

"Hello, little brother," the ghost girl said.

_Big _sister? I looked at the ghost girl. She looked about eleven or twelve years old. Still, she and Nico had the same thick hair and slight builds.

"Aline, this is Bianca," Nico introduced. I waved shyly. Bianca gave me the once over, then said "Be careful with this one."

I wasn't sure if she was talking to me or Nico.

"I didn't summon you," Nico said, "Why'd you come?"

"To talk about _it_. Have you heard anything new? Figured anything out?"

"Actually, you're looking at her."

Bianca pointed at me, mouth agape, "Her? Well. I'd better go," she started to un-form but when half of her torso was gone she stopped and said, "Don't do anything brash my brother."

Nico nodded. I later found out that he wouldn't listen.

I found out he didn't listen about a week later at the lake. Yes, the lake. You must be thinking, "But Aline, I thought you were afraid of water!" Why yes, I am. In my defense I didn't know I was going to the lake. Travis and Connor blindfolded me and said they had a surprise. What? I liked surprises. I excitedly hummed under my breath, "_We're off to see the Wizard, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz_...". I heard faint shrieks and splashes around me but I paid no mind. But when Travis took off the blindfold I screamed. Everyone in and around the lake looked at me but I couldn't even be embarrassed. I ran away and hid behind the fishing gear shed.

The twins came looking for me. "You are such _***es_!" I told them. They tried to apologize but I was fuming too much to listen.

"We're going to go canoe," Travis started.

"Come down and join us if you feel up to it," Connor finished.

They left and I sat behind the shed with my head between my knees. I don't know why I'm so afraid of water. I grew up in a surfing town for goodness sake. That was another reason I stood out in Alta Sansa, you couldn't get me anywhere near the sea. It was just to big, and scary, and untameable. I could go in a pool or stand in the rain but rivers, lakes, streams, I did not do. Plus, drowning seemed like the worst way to die.

After a while to calm down I got up and looked at the lake. All the blue, though it was quite beautiful, still sent my head spinning. I took a deep breath and imagined somewhere far away Tanner was saying: "Would you like to go for a swim?"

"Okay," I said quietly. There was a ghost of a hand around mine and I walked very, _very_ slowly toward the water. Halfway there and I froze in place, thinking about what I was doing. Did I want a watery grave? Tanner squeezed my hand, "_Twenty paces and I'll buy you a chili dog."_

_Mmm_, junk food.

I took twenty more steps and the ground was damp. Walk, walk, and the soft wood of the dock was beneath my feet. That was as far as I could go. For now. I listened closely to the campers swimming and laughing and the sun dancing on the water, which had begun to seem less evil. Was it the call of seagulls I heard or was that just a memory? Yes, it must have been just that because I was sure I heard the beating of drums-

I only saw a flash of what pushed me, something dark. I fell off the dock and when I hit the water I sank like a stone. Kicking and screaming, a flurry of white bubbles around me as I tore blindly through the water. Water rushed into my lungs and oh crap, I couldn't breathe, well obviously I couldn't breathe! I was going to die, I was drowning, I was _so_ going to kill Tanner for telling me to do this! There were lovely little dots flitting around the corners of my slowly closing eyes. Then I felt something wrap around me, something strong, then I felt myself flying. I had assumed the grip was death when my head broke over the water.

I was carried and laid down and there was something lumpy beneath my back- pebbles? Something pounded on my chest and someone- Percy- said, "Open your mouth Aline. Hurry up." I tried to obey and I felt the water being pulled out of my lungs. I gasped like a fish out of water, which I was very glad to be, and sat up. I continued hacking until I was sure every drop of lake was out of me. I looked through my water-frizzled hair to a circle of concerned faces. Percy was leaning next to me, the water he'd taken from my lungs a ball in his hand.

"What happened?" I stuttered.

"Besides you almost drowning in five feet of water?" he smiled, "I gave you a CPR. Classic Percy Rescue."

"Oh well... thanks," I wasn't _too _disappointed this CPR didn't involve kissing.

"It's no problem. But what happened? One second you were zoning out and the next you were trying to drink the lake."

My heart ceased when I thought of the... presence that had pushed me in. But I couldn't say what I thought I saw.

"I lost my footing," I assured, "Nothing happened."

_This time_.

* * *

**Forgive me, I'm too lazy to check this for mistakes. I wanted to write an Aline/Percy kiss but I didn't want Mary Sue/death threats. Was it Nico? And am I the only one wanting to meet Tanner? Reviews are loved. Flames are hated but excepted.**

**Yawn.  
**


	15. 15 I Think He's Bipolar

**Author's Note: Ack lack of sleep, a-hole teachers, and the prospect of summer are making me cranky. So take the chapter and let me nap. Rawrzzzzz.**

**Disclaimer: I do not, have not, and will not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians or any related characters. I do not own We're Off To See The Wizard from The Wizard of Oz.

* * *

** The answer was about three weeks.

That was how long it took for things at camp to turn strange, which was astounding for two reasons. One: it usually takes way less time for things to get weird around me, and two: how much stranger could things get at a mythical camp full of mythical creatures for partly mythical kids?

The answer to _that _was very.

The first thing that irked me was Chiron. He was still nice of course. But sometimes, when I was seen or mentioned, he'd frown or his tail would twitch nervously. Once or twice I gone past the Big House to get to the volleyball courts and seen him talking in hushed voices with a young woman. I hadn't seen her before but she reminded me of Kayla with curly red hair and colorful clothes. Each time I past them I only caught bits and pieces of conversation, all in Greek.

"_ο κόσμος πρέπει να στραφούν σε αποχρώσεις του γκρι,_" or

"_Όταν η συγχώρεση χορηγείται και φαίνεται ότι όλα είναι επιλυθεί,_".

Things about shades of gray and forgiveness and resolve. It didn't make sense to me but, hey, I never heard the whole thing. But from then on whenever I felt I was being followed, I'd turn around and catch not only fleeting black eyes but green ones, too.

The second thing was Nico. I had absolutely no idea what to make of him. There were times when he was almost nice to me and times when I was sure he was bent on my destruction. An example of that was two weeks ago.

It was late in the afternoon, the time between free time and dinner and the Hermes cabin was at the lake so I was wandering by myself. I was that the edge of the woods nearest the strawberry fields and I heard voices, muffled and unclear, so I followed them. I entered the woods and there was Nico. I should have run, turned around and forgotten him but I was intrigued. He was standing in front of a shallow pit that bubbled with some murky concoction. Silvery things hovered over the pit but took no definite shape. Nico was chanting, low and quick, but he stopped and sighed.

"I can hear you there," he said aloud.

Well, my cover was blown, so I stepped a little behind him and looked him over. Nico didn't have any weapons, just empty bottles and pizza boxes, and he was twisting his skull ring around his finger. I stepped closer to the pit.

"What are you doing?" I asked, reaching out my hand to touch the slinking shapes.

"Summoning the dead," he said simply. I pulled my hand back.

"Anyone you care to see?" he offered.

"Like, anyone... dead?"

"No. Alive. Yes, dead. I think the sunlight is getting to you, Sunshine."

"Oh well you don't have to be so rude. Can I talk to my Grandmother Delilah?"

Nico nodded and resumed chanting. The stuff in the pit bubbled and one of the things started to take the plump, big haired form of my grandmother. She squinted at me through her half moon glasses.

"Allie? Allie dearest is that you?"

"It's Aline. But yeah, it's me. How are you Grandma?"

"Dead," and she laughed like it was the funniest thing in the world, "Well? Come give your dead granny a hug." She held out her squishy but steel strong arms and I instinctively stepped back. It was not needed. When she got close to me the mist that made her began to disperse. She stepped back and it reappeared.

"The deceased can't mingle with the energies of the living," Nico explained. Grandma Delilah noticed him for the first time,

"And who might this young man be Allie? Your beloved?"

I blanched. What! Nico smirked and mouthed '_beloved_'. I didn't know that word still existed! I glared at Nico and said to granny, "This is Nico. He's, um," I wasn't sure if I could call him a friend, "he's my neighbor." It wasn't totally lying.

"I see. It's nice to meet you sonny."

"The pleasure is all mine," Nico said politely. Okay, where did that come from!

"Aw, what a delightful boy," poor, delusional Grandmother Delilah squealed, "why I should tell you a story about when Allie was little. I know! The time Allie dearest almost buried herself in bubbles because she didn't want to get in the bath tub!"

My eyes widened so much it hurt. I shook my head, "That's okay Granny. I'm sure you have to go. I heard it's bingo night! Or is it the knitting circle? Either way you should leave. I love you and I'll tell mom 'hi' for you."

"No, no, it's quite alright. Now, where to start? Oh yes! So Allie dearest always had to bathe with a rubber ducky named Ducky and..."

Nico shrugged and listened while I wished to die. When Grandma was finished Nico was trying very hard to keep in his laughter.

"I had better be going. Goodbye Aline," she said, dispersing. I couldn't even appreciate that she had called me the right name. As soon as her ghost was gone Nico cracked up. His laugh was something. It was low and serious but hinting at a release, like the pieces Beethoven wrote around the time he was going deaf.

_Not _that I was thinking into it _that _much. Nico looked at me from tear-rimmed eyes. He opened his mouth to say something but doubled over, cracking up again. I flipped him the bird. He finally caught his voice and said,

"All of that over Mr. Ducky?"

"You would have down the same things!" I protested.

"Probably," he straightened up, "but now I have to tell the whole camp."

I shot him daggers, "You wouldn't."

He took off and before _I _knew what I was doing I tackled him and straddled his waist, hands secured over his head.

"There is no way in heck you will ever tell anyone that story lest you join your father's kingdom," I threatened. I thought I sounded quite scary but he smiled, really _smiled_. Then I realized what I was actually doing.

"My, my, my what do we have here?" a girl's voice said from over my shoulder. I leapt off Nico and stood a good distance away. Nico got up and calmly brushed grass from his clothes.

"Hello, big sister."

"Hello, little brother," the ghost girl said.

_Big _sister? I looked at the ghost girl. She looked about eleven or twelve years old. Still, she and Nico had the same thick hair and slight builds.

"Aline, this is Bianca," Nico introduced. I waved shyly. Bianca gave me the once over, then said "Be careful with this one."

I wasn't sure if she was talking to me or Nico.

"I didn't summon you," Nico said, "Why'd you come?"

"To talk about _it_. Have you heard anything new? Figured anything out?"

"Actually, you're looking at her."

Bianca pointed at me, mouth agape, "Her? Well. I'd better go," she started to un-form but when half of her torso was gone she stopped and said, "Don't do anything brash my brother."

Nico nodded. I later found out that he wouldn't listen.

I found out he didn't listen about a week later at the lake. Yes, the lake. You must be thinking, "But Aline, I thought you were afraid of water!" Why yes, I am. In my defense I didn't know I was going to the lake. Travis and Connor blindfolded me and said they had a surprise. What? I liked surprises. I excitedly hummed under my breath, "_We're off to see the Wizard, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz_...". I heard faint shrieks and splashes around me but I paid no mind. But when Travis took off the blindfold I screamed. Everyone in and around the lake looked at me but I couldn't even be embarrassed. I ran away and hid behind the fishing gear shed.

The twins came looking for me. "You are such _***es_!" I told them. They tried to apologize but I was fuming too much to listen.

"We're going to go canoe," Travis started.

"Come down and join us if you feel up to it," Connor finished.

They left and I sat behind the shed with my head between my knees. I don't know why I'm so afraid of water. I grew up in a surfing town for goodness sake. That was another reason I stood out in Alta Sansa, you couldn't get me anywhere near the sea. It was just to big, and scary, and untameable. I could go in a pool or stand in the rain but rivers, lakes, streams, I did not do. Plus, drowning seemed like the worst way to die.

After a while to calm down I got up and looked at the lake. All the blue, though it was quite beautiful, still sent my head spinning. I took a deep breath and imagined somewhere far away Tanner was saying: "Would you like to go for a swim?"

"Okay," I said quietly. There was a ghost of a hand around mine and I walked very, _very_ slowly toward the water. Halfway there and I froze in place, thinking about what I was doing. Did I want a watery grave? Tanner squeezed my hand, "_Twenty paces and I'll buy you a chili dog."_

_Mmm_, junk food.

I took twenty more steps and the ground was damp. Walk, walk, and the soft wood of the dock was beneath my feet. That was as far as I could go. For now. I listened closely to the campers swimming and laughing and the sun dancing on the water, which had begun to seem less evil. Was it the call of seagulls I heard or was that just a memory? Yes, it must have been just that because I was sure I heard the beating of drums-

I only saw a flash of what pushed me, something dark. I fell off the dock and when I hit the water I sank like a stone. Kicking and screaming, a flurry of white bubbles around me as I tore blindly through the water. Water rushed into my lungs and oh crap, I couldn't breathe, well obviously I couldn't breathe! I was going to die, I was drowning, I was _so_ going to kill Tanner for telling me to do this! There were lovely little dots flitting around the corners of my slowly closing eyes. Then I felt something wrap around me, something strong, then I felt myself flying. I had assumed the grip was death when my head broke over the water.

I was carried and laid down and there was something lumpy beneath my back- pebbles? Something pounded on my chest and someone- Percy- said, "Open your mouth Aline. Hurry up." I tried to obey and I felt the water being pulled out of my lungs. I gasped like a fish out of water, which I was very glad to be, and sat up. I continued hacking until I was sure every drop of lake was out of me. I looked through my water-frizzled hair to a circle of concerned faces. Percy was leaning next to me, the water he'd taken from my lungs a ball in his hand.

"What happened?" I stuttered.

"Besides you almost drowning in five feet of water?" he smiled, "I gave you a CPR. Classic Percy Rescue."

"Oh well... thanks," I wasn't _too _disappointed this CPR didn't involve kissing.

"It's no problem. But what happened? One second you were zoning out and the next you were trying to drink the lake."

My heart ceased when I thought of the... presence that had pushed me in. But I couldn't say what I thought I saw.

"I lost my footing," I assured, "Nothing happened."

_This time_.

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**Forgive me, I'm too lazy to check this for mistakes. I wanted to write an Aline/Percy kiss but I didn't want Mary Sue/death threats. Was it Nico? And am I the only one wanting to meet Tanner? Reviews are loved. Flames are hated but excepted.**

**Yawn.  
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	16. 16 Cream Filler

**A/N: Hey readers... if I still have any. I'm hoping this filler will hold you over for about a week or two *winces as she waits for rotten tomatoes*. No fruit? Thanks! School is almost over! As soon as then I promise at least two chapters, no less than 1,200 word count. Deal?**

**I'm going to miss my graduating friends :(.**

**I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olmypians or any related characters. I do not own Make Me Wanna Die by The Pretty Reckless.**

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The answer was daydreaming.

About chocolate cakes, gorgeous butlers, and shirtless soccer players...

"Hello."

I nearly fell out of the pine tree I was sitting in at the soft, low voice. I melted a little but I didn't fall. Me breaking my neck would make the boy below much too happy.

Nico was looking up at me, eyes shielded from the slowly setting sun, which I gazed at freely. He stared at me and I stared back as well until he broke the quiet.

"May I join you?"

I debated in my mind. Bad idea? Yes. Were there chances of getting hurt? Probably. Was I going to say yes?

"Yeah."

He nodded. I turned off my iPod just in case he had something to say and just in case I would listen. Before it went off I heard the leader sing say,

"_Take me, I'm alive, never was a girl with a wicked mind  
__But everything looks better, when the sun goes down..._"

Nico climbed up the tree effortlessly, not a hair out of place. I was suddenly aware of how bad I probably looked. Scratches on my knees, dirt on my clothes and pine needles decorating my tangled mane of hair. He looked fine. Better than fine in fact, in dark jeans, a tee shirt with a smiling skull, and a leather avaitor jacket. When CG wore leather he looked like he was off to a movie audition. When Nico wore it he looked dangerous. And good. And-

"Fan of high places?" he cut in again.

I was surprised. "Totally. I like their new album a little better than the old but the original drummer was better."

Nico raised an eyebrow.

"Oh," I blushed, "Not High Places, but high places," I said gesturing to our perch. "Yeah I like them. Not very many in southern California, so I take what I can get."

"Yeah, not many in Hades either. And the best ones are taken by- nevermind. How are you doing miss Lucis?"

"Why do you care?"

"I don't."

"Well if you did I'm doing fine. You?"

"Perfect," I could tell he was lying, "Though I'd probably be a lot better if you weren't here." That sounded more like the truth.

"So if I'm so intolerable why are you sitting with me?"

"Highest tree in the camp. And with someone as pretty as you I don't mind sharing."

**"**Well, I'm surprised. Most people find my drawn-on jeans, band groupie shrts, and trainwreck of a train of thought to be highly annoying."

"Who said I didn't?"

"Ha. People tend to stay away from me, be wary of me, forget about me. But you can't seem to do that, can you, Nico?" I said, testing him. Did he get that I kind of thought he was the one who tried to drown me? If he did he didn't show it.

"You're a very hard girl to stay away from. But then again lots of people find my crude sense of humor, black attire, and ability to socialize with the dead reasons to avoid me."

"It must suck," I muttered.

"What? Hearing a buzz every three seconds when someone else dies? Cold, dark places that have practically made me avert the sun? Spending so much of my life around the dead that I feel like one myself?"

I didn't have anything to say but Nico seemed satisfied with my lack of a response.

"See ya," he said. He jumped down and landed on his feet like a black cat. One the had unfortunately crossed my path.

I stayed in the tree long after he'd turned into a little black dot in the distance and long after he'd disappeared. I sighed and rubbed my eyes, as if it would wipe away the confusion building in my mind. I dropped out of the tree and somehow landed on my feet too. I wouldn't always be that lucky.

Because I was going to _fall_... and no one could catch me. Maybe they would once or twice or thrice... but they couldn't catch me when it would count.

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**I think Aline's getting a bit too prophetic... :) . Mwahaha. Review drill. Thanks to Mushu The Powerful and xiaolinwind for being my 100 and 123 reviewers! **


	17. 17 It's An Animal House, Really

**A/N: School is out and Little Miss Evil Author is back! **

**I like this chapter…. And I like the ones coming up. Then things get complicated. Enough talking, take this chapter and the next and the next and glutton on my horrific writing. **

**This is a continuation of the day in the previous chapter.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians or any related characters. I do not own Breakaway by Kelly Clarkson.  
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The answer was stable duty.

How did I end up with that? It was Sara's fault. Let's just imagine every stupid thing that happens to me is Sara's fault, okay? Good.

I ran back to the arts and crafts shack where the Hermes cabin would be waiting. I had asked Connor and Travis if I could leave and they'd said yes. Then again they were making... something... out of clay and hadn't exactly been paying attention. Oh well. It should have taken me only five minutes to get back to the cabin but it took me almost half an hour. I kept getting distracted by butterflies. Pretty red and blue and black butterflies...Anyway, when I got back I was greeted by a tired looking Chiron, a bored looking cabin, and a smug looking Sara. She pointed at my direction and sneered,

"There she is."

Moi? Apparently.

"Where've you been? Off with your little emo boyfriend?" she sneered.

"I was... somewhere. What's the big deal?"

"You aren't supposed to go off alone without permission," Chiron said, "The camp is a safe place but there are still accidents waiting to happen."

"But Connor and Travis said I could leave!" I argued.

"But Sara does tell me this is not a one time incident. Is that true?"

I didn't want to lie to Chiron who was being kind even when I was totally in trouble. I liked to spend time by myself. That was what I was used to. I nodded.

Chiron stroked his beard, "I see. Well, Aline for not obeying the rules you will have a week of stable duty."

"_What_! But- but that's not fair!"

"No, but maybe a little time away from your cabin will compel you stay with them."

I knew right away there was _no_ point in arguing.

"Yes, after breakfast you must report to the stables by the armory, starting tomorrow."

I nodded and fumed silently. Chiron nodded as well and left. I wanted nothing more than to sock Sara in the mouth but that would probably get me kitchen duty as well, so I resisted. I talked to the twins very little at dinner and that night I dreamed of man-eating barn animals. Great.

For the first time I could barely bring myself to wake up. I burrowed under my blanket and tried to ignore the sounds of my cabin waking. There was nothing that could make me get up, nothing, nothing, nothing-

"The nymphs are making waffles for breakfast," Perry said.

I got up. I put on a green tank top and a pair of basketball shorts Elizabeth let me borrow. In the dining hall I binged on waffles and Travis and Connor told me that stable duty wouldn't be so bad. I believed them for a minute. When the rest of the cabin headed for the armory I headed to the stables. It would have taken five minutes but there were _such_ pretty flowers on the way...I smelled the stables before I saw it. The scent wasn't completely bad: animal and soap and alfalfa. I went through the gate into the dimly lit structure. And stopped. Seriously, I looked up and asked the gods _why me_.

Because standing at the the stall farthest from me, petting a black mare that looked every bit as dark and dangerous as he was, was Nico. I guess he heard my jaw hit the floor because he looked at me.

"Well, well, well, good morning Sunshine."

I didn't say anything, I just stared. It wasn't that I hated Nico, even if he hated _me_. It was just that he was everywhere! And wherever he was, trouble wasn't far behind. Nico continued talking when I didn't say anything,

"This," he said, patting the horse's nose, "is Nightmare."

"I-I can see why," I stuttered. Nightmare growled, if that was possible. Nico smirked. I blushed, and mouthed 'sorry' to the horse. This was going great.

"So what do I need to do?"

"Feeding time. I'll get the ones outside, you shovel the hay into their stalls."

I nodded. There were blocks of hay and alfalfa stacked against one wall. I went over to them and tried to lift one up. It was really heavy. I heard a stifled laugh and looked over my shoulder. Nico was standing behind me with a pitchfork.

"Uh-um-ah-" I stammered. Would Death By Gardening Instrument hurt? Luckily, I wouldn't find out. Nico raised an eyebrow and held the pitchfork out to me,

"You use this."

I wasn't even going to bother to lie and say 'I knew that'. I breathed a sigh of relief and gladly accepted it. It made my job much easier. The horses snorted gratefully as I gave them breakfast. Nico brought more in from the the pen outside. Some of them seemed to like him, some didn't. Then he switched to changing their water and told me to hang up the saddles next to the right stall. We'd fallen into such an easy silence that I was surprised when Nico asked,

"What are you in for?"

"You," I said automatically, "Well, not just you," I added hastily, "Also because of me. Okay, that didn't make sense. Sara ratted on me for going off by myself like yesterday, when I was in that tree. We're not supposed to, we have to stay with our cabin and all. But I'm only child and I'm kind of used to being by myself."

I thought I heard Nico mumbled, 'me too'. I asked,

"What'd you get exiled for?"

He smirked, "Do you really want to know?"

I admitted I didn't.

"We're done here," he said, "Now we go and groom the pegasus."

I looked around the stable, "Where are they?"

"A little path away. We keep them separated. The regular horses get a bit jealous," he stage whispered. The barn snorted and stomped their feet indignantly. He gave Nightmare a pat on the nose and gestured to one of the doors, "Ladies first?"

"Then go on ahead," I quipped.

"Ha," he said. I followed him out of the stables onto a well worn dirt path by the pen. The grass was a pale green, dotted with fluffy, small flowers. In the soft light, the dust in the air swirled and glittered like gold. Everything around me was _beautiful_. Everything...I looked out of the corner of my eye at Nico. He'd been looking at me. We both looked away. The walk was over too quick.

The pegasus stable was the same as the other, but it had a higher roof. There were three in the pen but they looked completely normal. Two were nuzzling and the third, smaller one was pawing-hooving?-the ground. He sprinted across the enclosure and jumped. I gasped, certain he'd hit the ground but then his wings came out. Big, tawny, feathered _things_ that belonged on a bird or an angel, not a horse. It truly was magical.

Nico looked down at me, the corner of his mouth turned up, "Never seen a mythological creature in flight?"

I shook my head.

"Tell you what, you can watch, I'll take care of the grooming."

I was surprised by this random display of kindness, "Are you sure?"

"Yeah."

"Thanks, I can't wait to try pegasus riding. It's, like, the ultimate heights. I was going to ask Travis and Connor if we could come tomorrow," I admitted.

Nico looked thoughtful, "That sounds like a good idea..." He went into the stable, and I saw him fetch some brushes and mane conditioner. I leaned on one of the bars of the pen and watched the brown pegasus in flight. It was quite cute and funny how he galloped while flying. The other two stopped making out long enough to take off too. The three beautiful creatures looped and dived and swirled and played in the air. In my ADD mind they dragged music notes across the sky, drawing a song, just for me,

" _Wanted to belong here_  
_But something felt so wrong here_  
_So I pray_  
_I could breakaway_

_I'll spread my wings and I'll learn how to fly_  
_I'll do what it takes 'til I touch the sky_  
_And I'll make a wish, take a chance, make a change_  
_And breakaway_"

I watched them fly for a long, long time until I felt guilty for leaving Nico with all the work. I went inside the barn but it looked like he was already done. He was brushing the wide, white wings of the horse in the last stall. Nico looked up as I entered and said,

"This is Celeste."

And again I could see why. Celeste was magnificent. She looked at me with one blue and one brown eye. She had a white coat and a silver mane, threaded with gray and blue. Her wings seemed to shimmer. She whinnied at me softly, a sound like tinkling bells.

"Come meet her," he said. I walked toward her slowly, afraid I do something wrong. I stopped at her side, the binocular vision of a horse is bad, and patted her behind the ears. She blinked and then nuzzled me. I looked up happily at Nico and he had the _smallest_ smile on his face.

The rest of the day was a blur, but when I saw Sara I made sure to say thanks.

Little did I know tomorrow would be the first time I fell.

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**Hello. I would just like to remind everyone that this is a T rated story. The T-like-themes will come later in the story. So if your under, like, eleven quit reading. As my friend Chelsea would say: Thanks juu. Review?**


	18. 18 I Fall For The First Time

**A/N: I'm sure you don't want any excuses but my sister's been in the hospital. It's frightening but she'll be fine. **

**I was in an angry mood writing this, if you can't tell. And this one's loooong. Oh and read the bottom AN it's (fairly) important.  
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**Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians or any related characters.  


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The answer was bribery. Lots of it.

After lunch the next day the Hermes cabin (and me) headed to the stables for a pegasus riding session. Travis and Connor had pulled some strings to get Demeter to switch activities which translated to Travis groveling to his girlfriend, Katie, for a long time. But, hey, it worked, so I let Travis maintain some dignity. The youngest Hermes kid, Elizabeth, caught up with me as I skirted around -_far around_- the river. She was a cute and nice kid, but only eight. And yeah, she's the one who let me borrow her clothes. Do not laugh!

"Hi, Aline!" she chirped brightly.

"Hey Lizzie," I smiled, "What's up?"

"Not much. Are you in love with Nico? Do you know about the prophecy? Aren't you upset you haven't been claimed yet?"

I blanched. Did I mention she was straightforward? I almost chuckled at how seriously she was looking at me with those winsome Hermes eyes. I kind of wanted to choke her, honestly, but I was compelled to answer.

"Tell you what, I'll humor you, Lizzie. And I'll start at the bottom and work my way up. Am I mad I haven't been claimed? No. Am I slightly pissed? Yes. I mean, an Olympian knocks up my mom and left her just out of high school with me. And she was from a small town and people gossiped behind her back but she still went to medical school. When I asked her why she said it was because my dad would have wanted her to finish her dreams. So she moved us to Alta Sansa and we were middle class but that was fine because I had sun and sand and music and that's _all_ I've ever wanted. I had a fine life until I was six. Then I had to go to every school within a ten mile radius because, apparently, I had an 'aversion to learning and education', meaning I was hyperactive and couldn't read well. Which, incidentally, was my dad's fault." I took a breathe but I couldn't stop. I was on a roll, like a snowball in a cartoon, getting bigger and more volatile as I went on.

"Sure I made friends but there was still that empty place in family photos and... in my heart. Then I came over east and met Thalia and she was so awesome. I forgot everything I hated about my family and about the move. And then somehow I ended up here at camp. I found out my dad wasn't some charming, foreign guy my mom met one sunny afternoon but a _Greek god_. I got one step closer to the truth but I still don't know who I am. And I don't know if I should give a damn because my dad sure doesn't.

"I know absolutely nothing about a prophecy. Why, does it concern me? And finally, no I_ do not_ love Nico. Don't ever say that again. Are you satisfied?"

Elizabeth scrunched her nose and thought for a second. She nodded, yes. A good thing, seeing how I was winded from confessing my inner turmoil to a child and that we had arrived at the stables. The instructor, one of the Athena kids, shouted some instructions but everyone had already begun saddling horses. I mean, pegasus. I noticed nobody readied Celeste.

I walked to her stall and patted her on the nose,

"Hello...do you remember me?"

She whinnied what I chose to assume was a 'yes'. There was a saddle on a hook next to her and I recalled how to put it on her from watching Nico this morning. My mind wandered to how strange he'd acted this morning, not as talkative or, well, welcoming as he was yesterday. Like he was angry at me again. Maybe he was. I could never tell.

"Ready?" Connor asked, appearing at my side. I took a hold of Celeste's reins and said 'yeah'.

I was the only one who actually had to listen to the instructor. Basically we just rode around the surrounding paths until we felt like flying. We kicked the pegasus and they took off. It took me quite a few tries to get on-what? Celeste was tall and I wasn't- but when I finally did it was amazing. I wasn't even that high off the ground but I felt on top of the world. Celeste snorted and started walking. Er, hooving? It was fun, it made my butt hurt a little, but it was still fun. Travis caught up with me,

"Do you want to try flying now?" he asked.

"Sure, but you go first."

Travis tipped his head like a cowboy with an imaginary hat. He _actually_ said 'giddy up' and kicked his pegasus. They took off cantering and I was sure they were going to run off the path when the pegasus spread his wings and went up, up, and away. Seriously. They went up so high and so fast I couldn't find him. Then a shadow passed right over my head, followed by a _whoosh_ and laughter.

I gaped upwards. Travis was swooping over me, "Come on!"

A grin spread across my face. I kicked Celeste, shamelessly adding a 'Yeehaw', and she took off running. When she took off I stifled a yelp, not because it scary but because it was so awesome! I wasn't scared of falling or anything! Celeste flew fast and smooth and I could see everything: the Hermes cabin, the amphitheater, and-I noted with amusement- Nico's secret lake. Travis and his pegasus banked down to us, "Having fun?" he teased. I could only grin. We started playing tag mid-air and Elizabeth and Perry joined us.

But then I started to get Icarus Syndrome. The sun was shining so bright and it was just _so __close_. I told Celeste to go higher and higher and she objected. I keep complaining until she finally began ascending. Somewhere I heard someone call out to me but it was lost in the rush of blood and pure euphoria in my ears. The sun and clouds were so big and bright and welcoming. Why should I be confined to the ground, why couldn't I fly out of the atmosphere, into the stars, up to Olympus? Yes, that sounded like such a good idea-

My thoughts were cut off by the sharp pain in my chest. The syndrome was gone. And I thought with fear for a second that I really had flown out of the atmosphere. Because I couldn't breathe and I was _cold_. I looked down at Celeste but she was still except for the beating of her wings. Something was amiss and she knew it too. Trying to fill my quickly deflating lungs, I tugged on Celeste's reins, telling her to go down. _Fast_. And we were getting so close when it started.

We must have been flying fast but I felt like I was moving through molasses. I heard something. It was like the beating of another pair of wings, powerful and rhythmic. I wanted to call out, tell Travis it wasn't funny anymore, but my chest seized again. I kicked Celeste and we going _rapid_ but we were getting nowhere. I looked around but saw nothing out of the ordinary. Then there was movement in my peripheral vision, a flash of black.

It was there again but at the other eye, just a fleeting darkness. What in the world? Celeste neighed suddenly, and reared, nearly throwing me off. She beat her wings until they were no more than shimmering blurs and she galloped in crazy circles. It was like, like she was running from... _death_.

"Celeste!" I cried, "For the love of Skinny Cow Fudgesicles!" I was losing my hold on the reins as my ride went mad. She was stirring up a wind that blew my hair across my face, stinging my eyes. A shadow came up next to me and it was almost _tangible_. Celeste screamed- as much as she could- and she reared and I fell.

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**I do have the rest written but I'm not even going to promise I'll update tomorrow or something will happen that will prevent that from happening. Now.**

**For my readers who are also authors please tell me something: What are you're writing habits? What I mean, and for example, I write everything in notebooks first. And I never write at a certain time though I write best during math classes, noon, and midnight. When an idea hits me I map out the entire thing first and I write on whatever I can get my hands on. Even if it is my hand. I also daydream a scene, make sure it looks good in my head before I publish. That works because I seem to dream in words. **

**So yeah, just curious. Review? Thanks *airkisses*!  
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	19. 19 A Short Look On A Short Life

**A/N: Yes! I actually came through on a promise. **

**Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians or any related characters. I do not own Hero by Nickelback. Go listen to it, it's beautiful.

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The answer was odd.

It was an odd feeling, falling. It wasn't even completely unpleasant. I mean, I'd fallen off trees and monkey bars and such but never anything of this height. I wasn't freaking out just yet because my mind wasn't caught up with my body. I was falling on my back and all I could take in was clear blue skies. Even with the whistling of gravity in my ears I could hear a song in the background.

"_I am so high,  
I can hear heaven_

_I am so high,  
I can hear heaven_

_Whoa but heaven,  
No heaven don't hear me_"

Gosh, that was true. I had a fleeting thought that the gods were watching my descent and doing nothing about it. Even if I prayed I doubted any higher power would come to my rescue. Now I could sense the ground, as if it were rising to greet me. To greet me then to kill me. My life wasn't flashing before my eyes but the headline '_Aline Lucis, 15, fell to her death at summer camp after her 'horse' went psycho. Her last words were 'Skinny Cow Fudgesicles_' certainly did. Ah, my wingless flight was coming to an end.

I hit it headfirst and hard. My body immediately went limp but my skull was still pounding. I waited for it to stop, to see Charon who I heard moonlight as a hot teenage boy named Anubis but the pounding didn't stop. I put all my energy into the voluntary muscles of my eyelids, so I could see.

I was still in the air. What the bleep? No, correction. I was still in the air, quickly nearing the ground, in the arms of Travis Stoll. When we touched the ground I didn't even care that he had a girlfriend, I grabbed his hand and planted one on his cheek. My head ached and my body felt strained and my left arm felt like it was being sawed open again but I was alive. Living. Animate. Not dead.

The rest of the cabin, minus Sara who looked oddly disappointed, crowed around the three of us, firing a billion questions at once. Even with my brain on spin cycle their voices made such a beautiful composure. Because you couldn't hear if you were dead. And I wasn't. Whoopie! I wanted to get up and dance a jig and kiss Travis on the mouth. Although I couldn't because I was finding it nearly impossible to move and, even though I'd proved myself a sucker for boys on many an occasion, I'd never take another girl's guy. Near death experiences gave you a purer outlook on life, didn't they? That was the last thought I had before I had the pleasure of blacking out.

* * *

**Yah, I don't think you got the Charon/Anubis thing unless you've read The Red Pyramid. In PJO Charon carries you across the River Styx but in The Red Pyramid its Anubis (who's, like, kind of the Nico of that series).**


	20. 20 I'm Back and Deader Than Ever

**A/N: Back from a family vacay. Explains it all doesn't it :P**

**This story will get really sad, really harsh, ... kind of soon. Death is involved. Key word 'involved' ;)**

**I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians. I do not own 'Ironic' by Four Years Strong or by Alanis Morissette. I do, r.e. will own Totally Captivated, the manga not the actual story and stuff... anyone else read yaoi manga? Send me a message.**

* * *

The answer was a sleepless night.

That was how long I had to rest before I had to face the reality of what had happened. I woke up that morning and my cabin mates rush to my bedside. We'd decided yesterday that Chiron didn't need to know what'd happened. The Hermes cabin, minus Sara who'd been looking almost disappointed after my 'accident', crowed around me and started talking.

"What happened?" Elizabeth asked.

I wasn't sure myself.

"Where did you think you were going?" Connor demanded.

I wanted to touch the stars.

"When did Celeste start to freak out?" Travis questioned.

I didn't remember.

"Why didn't you call out?" Paxton interrogated.

I wasn't scared.

"How were you not scared!" They all said together.

It was because I wasn;t quite caught up.

I noticed nobody asked 'who'. As in, 'who could have caused it'? Maybe they weren't thinking the way I was. Maybe I was thinking into it too much. Ugh, maybes suck, don't they? When they seemed satisfied with my claims I asked them something that had been bugging me,

"What will happen to Celeste?"

They all looked at each other but none of them met my eyes. Finally, Connor spoke up,

"What happened was not good, you know. The counselor and Travis and I decided that it might be best if Celeste was-"

"What!" I shrieked, bolting up, "you can_not _put her down! It wasn't her fault! The air got real cold and something was flying around us and, and-" At that point my voice had gotten dangerously high and I was gesticulating wildly.

"Whoa," Paxton interrupted, lowering my arms to my sides, "they didn't say anything like that. Maybe Celeste isn't doing well. We'll figure an arrangement out so nobody else gets hurt."

"I'm fine, " I said. And I wasn't lying. Though I was more than tired mentally, I was physically alright. To prove this I climbed out of bed and attempted a clumsy cartwheel. When I got back up they were all looking at me with amazement.

"Wow. No offense but you were total crap yesterday," Travis said. I shrugged, self-consciously noticing how much lower my left shoulder came, "I've always been a fast healer."

"Still, you should take it easy today. We've got archery this morning. Want to come with?"

"Well," I shot a look at Sara, "I think _somebody_ doesn't want me to miss out. So yes."

After breakfast and cleaning the cabin I sat on a wooden log and watched the Hermes kids shoot at dummies and targets. I was itching to get my hands on a vow but I wasn't up to it yet. After watching arrow after arrow miss its mark I let my mind wander freely. Like Little Bow Peep it wandered to a very dark place: Nico di Angelo.

As my last name meant 'light', his meant 'of angels'. Of angels, _my butt_. As difficult and stomach churning as it was to admit, all signs pointed to him causing..._whatever _made me fall. He knew I wanted to go riding the next day. I hadn't seen him in the morning. He knew Celeste was my favorite. The thing in the sky felt like death. Most importantly, he had a grudge and wanted me gone. But actually killing me? Was he capable of it? The more I thought the worse I felt inside. I needed a distraction. I found the perfect one that afternoon.

I easily spotted the glare from the glasses and the mass of brown hair that had probably never encountered a hairbrush. In other words, I found Mathias sitting under a tree. I tapped him on the shoulder. He looked up, smiled, and pushed up his glasses , three simple movements that made my heart skip beats.

"Hey Aline," he said, getting my name right. And he said it really nice, a cute little pause between the 'uhlee' and the 'en'.

"Hey," I eventually said back, a little breathlessly. Clearing my throat I went on, "I'm sorry about the last time we hung out. Sara, if you haven't noticed, isn't the nicest girl ever. Thalia's been really busy lately and I wanted to spend time with someone I haven't had to live with. And right now that someone is you. If you're up it." I added hastily.

"Sure. Why not?" He got up and tucked the paperback he'd been reading into his pocket. The cover told it all: a buff, shirtless, oiled guuy holding a moaning, cladly dressed woman. Mat was in to-

"Romance novels?"

He blushed, like red roses, "Don't we have somewhere to be?"

"No."

"Okay then. How about the climbing the wall? It's super dangerous."

"It sounds fun," I grinned, "Be my belay?"

"Forever and always," he said with mock sincerity and a little bow. We headed side by side to the wall which was located past amphitheater. Mat and I made small talk. He told me what it was like being a son of Hephaestus, his love of technology, and how he'd become friends with Thalia.

"I though she was scary at first but she's genuine, you know?"

"Yeah..." I sighed, twirling a strand of hair around my finger. I hadn't noticed it getting longer, just touching my shoulders. There was the braying of horses- and satyrs, campers giggles, and the clang of metal all around but Mat and I were silent. Looking from the corner of my eye to be the least suspicious, I really studied Mat.

He towered over me, almost a whole head taller. He looked a little younger than his supposed seventeen but he was cute. His glasses took up most of his oval face. His hair fell in a wave over his eyes. He was stark, raving _white_, almost lavender around the eyelids. That made everything else, the coffee of his eyes, the red of his cheeks, and the burgundy of his scars, more noticeable. He wasn't perfect, no, except for his mouth. _It_ was full and pink and perfect.

Quite suddenly, those full, perfect lips were _very _close to me,

"I heard about your little trip," he whispered and I could feel him smile. He smelled like powered sugar. It sent chills through my spines. Not like the ones I got around Nico. Less like someone walking on your grave, more... something else. I wanted a distraction and this, _this_ was distracting. Now, I needed another diversion before my heart left my chest.

"Look over there," I said, pointing ahead. Standing on a log, strumming his guitar was CG. Standing, or rather rolling on the ground squealing were his fangirl campers. Even from far away he sounded like a superstar.

"Let's go," I urged. Mathias grayed. I guessed that was his way of paling. He shook his head but I grabbed his hand and pulled him toward the performance. CG was singing a slow, guitar prominent song I did not recognize.

" '_An old man turned ninety-eight,  
__he won the lottery and died the next day,  
It's a black fly in your Chardonnay,  
It's a death row pardon two minutes too late,' _"

My eyebrows shot up and something fluttered in the back of my mind,

" '_And isn't it ironic... don't you think' "_

And then I was balancing on the log with CG. He looked at me, almost as surprised as I was when I sang,

" '_It's like rain on your wedding day,  
a free ride when you've already paid,  
__It's the good advice you just didn't take  
who would have thought... it figures_' "

CG gave me a brillant smile as he finished up the beginning of the song. The fangirls clapped politely.

"You kind of suck. But it seems like you have real l'amour for singing," he said.

I laughed, "Thanks. I think."

He held out his hand, "CG."

I shook it. It was really warm, "I know. Aline."

"I didn't know."

"Ha. You're good."

"I knew that as well."

I gestured over my shoulder, "That's my friend, Mathias."

"Tall, cute one who looks away every time I try to meet his eyes?"

"Yes."

"Je sais."

I smiled good-naturedly and said, "It's been a fun duet but I must get going. See you around?"

CG nodded and I jumped down into the dispersing crowd. But I miscalculated and knock someone over.

"Ouch. I'm really sorry," I apologized, lending a hand to help up the girl. She was older, maybe eighteen, and looked like Kayla. The same long, red, curly hair. She dressed like me, shorts with lots of little drawings and paint splattered sneakers.

"It's okay. I've traveled the Labyrinth, faced Kronos, and adopted the spirit of the Oracle of Delphi. I've been through worse."

"Oh. You're Rachel. The Oracle. Nice to meet you, I'm-"

"Aline. I saw you coming," she said, but her voice faltered at the end.

"I'd better go, too," she began. Except her eyes started glowing greener, "But remember,

'_Well life has a funny way of sneaking up on you,  
when you think everything's okay  
and everything's going right_' "

I giggled nervously, "Is that a verse or a vision?"

"Maybe both," she answered vaguely. Rachel left in a trance like state, leaving me blinking. Mathias came over and shook me lightly. He asked if I was okay and I lied and said I was. We continued on our way without talking. It gave me a chance to think. With Rachel's words buzzing around my head, good thoughts did not come easily.

The wall was big and imposing. Lava ran down and it occasionally shook, leaving the campers in harnesses suspended like spiders. Mat, who was "at least decent" at this, helped fit me into a harness and manhandle my hair into a helmet. My lungs couldn't help but contract everytime he brushed my cheek, my arm, my back.

Sucker for boys? Say it with me: heck yes. With all that internal commotion I hadn't noticed him push up my sleeve and frown.

"Are you sure you can climb with that?"

"Positive," I tugged it back down. I walked over to the wall and propped one foot on the oddly shaped knob. Mat gave me the thumbs up; I could go. Climbing was hard work. The sun beat down, my arms hurt, and most of the time I couldn't find a proper handhold. However the shaking and dodging of lava made me more determined to reach the top. I will not fall, I chanted to myself as I neared the top. I will not fall...

I fell.

It wasn't like the last time when I was disoriented and I knew something was wrong. Thus was sudden and unexpected. I heard the snap of the rope and Mat yell my name, and me screaming as I lost hold of the wall. Yep, I was terrified. You know the saying: sending me flying once, shame on you. Sending me flying twice, I scream bloody hell.

The rock wall wasn't as high as the sky so I didn't have as much time to ponder the meaning of life. I hit something soft and then something hard. I opened my eyes. I wasn't on Charon's boat. I was on top of Mathias, who was on the ground. Oh. Oops.

"Mat?"

"Yeah?"

"Sorry."

"S'okay."

"Are you alright?"

"My head hurts."

"Yikes," True to my clumsy self I'd hit him with my helmet. There was a purple bruise the size of a _Pokeball _under his scars.

"Are you okay?"

"Just fine."

"I tried to catch you."

"You did okay."

"Good."

"I think I should get off you now."

"Sure."

I got off him, my legs shaking. The few other campers raced over to us, asking if we were alright. I shrugged them off, thankful but irritated. Not from the experience but because I knew it wasn't a joke. It wasn't a coincidence. I wasn't just accident prone. I wasn't safe. This was only confirmed by Mathias holding up the severed rope,

"It was cut by Stygian ice," he reported.

It was like bugs crawled under my skin, "Stygian ice."

"Mmhm. I know all about weapons. See how clean the cut is, how there are little ice crystals left behind? All the signs of Stygian ice."

"I know what it is," I snapped, "and I know it's only found in the Underworld."

* * *

**Lunar: And this is twice Aline's been caught.  
****Aline: On a completely unrelated topic, have you seen the California Gurlz music video?  
Lunar: As 'california gurlz' ourselves, Aline and I find it very stereotypical. But it is a nice anthem and fun for the summer. The music video however is Candy Land for adults.  
****Nico: I like it.  
Aline: Too much if you ask me- wait. Where were you in this chapter? Aren't I super pissed off with you-  
Lunar: Shut up! You're ruining the story! Ugh. When (if) you review, please tell me what needed work on this chapter. I think a lot did. Or else I will make you spend the day with these two. It'll drive you insane.  
Nico: -snickers- Lunar's proof.  
****Lunar: -_-**


	21. 21 When Life Gives You Melons Oh Shoot

**A/N: IMPORTANT: This is shameless self advertising but I'm writing a new Maximum Ride fic. It's (mostly) canon, post- FANG, and features a measly two OCs. Here's the summary, 1st person:**

_Yo. I'm Ic. That's right, laugh it up. With (almost) nothing but $97, Oreos, and a chain-smoker Aussie boy, I'm taking off to find my Mom's longlost best friend. Oh and maybe prove he's my Dad. Wanna come along for the ride? Rated T._

**Yah?**

**To be honest I didn't like Aline in this one. I feel like I made her too slutty .-. Oh well. This chapter is actually almost deserving of its T rating :P**

**Disclaimer: I don't own.**

* * *

The answer was unkind.

It was unkind of me to yell to Mathias. Then again, it was unkind of Nico to try and _kill_ me. I mean: the dark, chilling thing when I was flying, a mineral found only in Hades? How obvious did he want to make it that he wanted me gone?

"Are you sure you're okay? I'm sorry," Mat said. His glasses didn't hide the hurt in his eyes or his voice.

"No. I'm not okay. But I'd be much less okay if it weren't for you. In fact..." I glanced around and saw we'd pretty much been left alone. Then, I did something very stupid. I put a hand on Mathias's shoulder, pulled him down to my height, and kissed him.

He tasted like powered donuts. But it was little more than me pressing my mouth to his and him doing nothing. I had a terrifying thought that he had a girlfriend and I was totally on somebody else's territory. He just didn't give off 'I have a girlfriend' vibes! I let him go and stepped away already streaming 'sorry's.

"It's okay," he interrupted during the twenty fourth 'sorry', "Unexpected but okay," He ran a hand through his hair, "Let's let Alexis finish damage control and get you out of that gear."

I nodded but he refused to meet my eyes.

"I really am sorry. I don't know what I was thinking."

We stood inside the storage shed- _alone_- trying to get me out of the equipment.

"When you fell or when you... kissed me?" Mat grunted as he pulled my unfortunately lifesaving helmet off. Really, if it hadn't done its job I would be a lot less embarrassed right now. I also wouldn't feel compelled to do what I was about to.

"Both," I said, answering his previously unanswered question. I sighed to myself but went on, "Why didn't kiss me back?"

"Huh?" Mat had his back to me but I could see blush creeping up his neck.

"You didn't kiss me back," I said slowly, inching closer to him, "Do you have a girlfriend?"

"No."

"Do you not like me like that?"

"No."

"Is it_ just_ because you weren't expecting it?"

He said 'no' like it pained him.

"Okay. Then why?"

"No reason."

"Of course there's a reason," I said, perhaps a bit too exasperated, "I'm learning there's always a reason. What's yours?"

"Can we just go?" Mat headed for the door but I stepped in front of it, crossing my arms.

"You blush," I accused.

"What?" Mat said, reaching for the handle.

"You blush," I repeated patiently, grabbing his hand, "You stutter. You hide. You don't want to go close. You dream, you get breathless, you stare. I know how it looks. I know how feels."

"I don't know what you're talking about," Mat scoffed. He tried for the door handle again and I captured his other hand.

"You like him."

Mat makes a noise like a cornered animal, "I don't-"

"Then tell me why. It's not that hard," he didn't say anything, just kept staring at the ground like it would give him the answers to my questions.

"So how long have you liked him?"

"I don't like him-"

"Quit lyi-"

"I love him."

Three words that were like a blow to the stomach. I let Mathias go and stepped back, wrapping my arms around me.

" '_And isn't that ironic... it figures_'," I said, half to myself.

"What does that mean?" Mat asked just as quietly. He fell in step with me as I began to pace the shed.

"I mean it's ironic, duh! I knew what you were going to say and I really hoped I was wrong. Except for the first time I'm right! I wonder what else I'll be right about. It's ironic because I was getting out of a rut. I'd cleared my head and I was falling for the _right_ guy and then I find out he's all _wrong_!"

It took me a second to realize Mathias was no longer in step with me. He was standing, a porcelain statue, staring at the floor.

"Wrong?" he echoed, "Is that how you feel about it?"

"What? No. No!" I cried, desperately trying to backtrack, "I don't think it's wrong at all! I don't care! I-"

"I've gotten used to people saying that. I just didn't think you would. I thought you were better."

"I am! I'm just upset. Gosh, you're just so perfect in your own way and I didn't mean to upset you."

"I'm getting that," he said, a corner of his mouth twitching up, " You know- or I guess you_ don't_ know- but it's hard to tell people. You don;t know how they'll react. But I put up with it. 'Cause if life gives you melons..."

"...you're probably dyslexic?" I said finishing the gaff.

"Something like that," the corner of his mouth settled, up, "No one else, besides Thalia knows. Some assume, like Sara. Don't tell. And if it makes you feel better: you're, if I could, the girl I'd fall for," he sighed, like flute that keep in air too long, "I've got to think. I should go and you should too."

He brushed past me, still leaving stupid, hopeless shivers. I stayed in the shed, suddenly cold. A single bulb winked over head, like it was using Morris code to say: _y-o-u-r-e a-n i-d-i-o-t_, over and over. I switched it off and left. The first person I met that evening was the cause of all my problems.

"Sorry," I muttered for the twenty-eighth time that day, as I bumped into someone. I looked up to meet obsidian eyes and looked and looked.

"You," I sneered.

"Me," Nico agreed.

"I absolutely hate you! It's all your fault!"

"Um okay. I wanted to see if you were alright. Elizabeth told me about your fall. I was worried about you."

"Of course you were! And I wanted Shaant Hacikyan to cut his hair. No, better yet I own the TARDIS! Of _course_ you were worried!"

"I... was?"

"Look, just get out of my way. I have places to be an a shallow grave is not one of them."

"What are you going on about, Aline?" Nico demanded, no longer quiet and 'caring'. He said my name a way, too. Rougher. Not like he meant it to be sweet, in another 's' word way. Like he could control me. What felt like ages ago Thalia had told me that names had power. Nico had a terrible and hopefully unknown power over me. In reality I shook my head in disgust at myself.

"I'm going on about how, because of you, I lost who could have been my best friend here. I fell off the rock wall and I fell for Mathias!"

Nico raised an eyebrow, "Isn't he-"

"Gay? Yes! And aren't you evil?" I pushed Nico and walked away. I was absolutely seething inside. Still, he caught up with me with ease.

"I'm not evil."

"Go lie to another girl," I muttered, though somehow the thought of him with another girl stung.

"Aline," he said again. And the power started working. He didn't grab my shoulder or my hand but wrapped his arms around my waist. I was trapped, surrounded completely by him. I couldn't breathe out, only in, and I breathed in earth and chocolate. Nico was hard, not soft muscle at all, and his hands were cold where my shirt had ridden up up. Why did I want to cry and die? Why did I want to grab him and kiss him?

"I'm not evil," it didn't sound like he was lying. Really, "It's just-"

"You're not good," we said at the same time. But which one of us was right?

* * *

**Scary? Snotty? Stubborn? Smexy? The possibilities are endless. As for 'names have power', I'll give you a hint: The most powerful player in the game of Aline's life, hasn't yet been named.**

**Did you hear (read) that line '...there's always a reason'? And about Mat... I've changed my plea: Got a problem? Get the f*ck out, kthnxbai Shaant Hacikyan is from Cute Is What We Aim For (thank you, Emmmmaaaa).**

**And if you want to see what Mat's perfect lips looks like: http: /www. youtube. com/watch?v=uBtH2YlNiNc&feature =channel . It's minutes 1:02- 1:07 ;) I mean REALLY! Have you ever SEEN Brendon Urie's mouth! Squee! Haha. Ha.**

**Mmm.**


	22. 22 Unwanted, Divine Intervention

**A/N: My brother left for grad school :): ! Know what my current favorite quote is:**

**"It's not heights people are afraid of. It's falling." I don't know who or why.**

**I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians. I do not own whatever song I may or may not quote in this chapter.**

**

* * *

**

The answer was three.

I had three godly encounters the next day, reminding me that I was not just at Camp Half Blood to have fun and possibly die. I was there because I was a demigod.

But if you're anything like me- and for your sake I sincerely hope you're not- you're wondering what happened between me and Nico last night. The answer to _that _is absolutely nothing. I wretched myself out of his arms and stalked to the mess hall. He didn't even try to follow me. And I didn't bother to tell anyone anything. My friends took it as post traumatic stress. If only they knew it was Post-Traumatic Experience number Three. That's it.

My day of divine interventions started with the smell of wine. I was strolling down by the strawberry fields after a day of track with the dryads and Paxton winning. Every. Single. Time. More nature spirits were walking up and down the rows and satyrs played on reed pipes. There was also a plump, blonde boy who seemed to be talking to the plants. Whatever he was doing it worked, encouraging the vines to grow. Grover saw me and waved. I grinned and waved too. He went back to playing a royally screwed up version of Hilary Duff's 'So Yesterday'. I winced, making a mental note to send him so sheet music. Then it hit me: a powerful, bittersweet scent that burned my throat when I breathed in. I rubbed purple-y dots from my eyes. Standing before me was a little man.

Now, when I say a 'little man' I do not mean a cute little Keebler elf offering me fudge. He was wearing bright crimson trainers with a tiger striped Juicy Couture sweatsuit. I didn't even know they _made _those. He had curly hair, a red nose like he had the flu, and small, sad eyes. He also reeked alcohol. Yet I knew to be scared. No matter how darn short he was he was powerful. I realized all the nature spirits had knelt and something clicked.

"Hey!" I said impulsively, "You're Dionysus. The-"

"Say 'wine dude' and I'll turn you into a deer."

"I was going to say 'madness dude', but okay."

He sniffed, "I suppose that will suffice."

"So am I, like, in trouble?"

"Not, like, yet," he mocked.

I knit my eyebrows together. Maybe he _was _drunk.

"Quite honestly I didn't think she was you," he said abruptly, breaking my train of thought, which had been pleasantly swerving onto the tracks of butterflies and computer games.

"Who was me?"

"You are rather unimpressive- unremarkable, really- to be the one who-" a little red light blinked on his Rolex watch, "whoops. Looks like its time for pinochle. Cheers."

"Wait! I'm the one who does what?" I cried but the god had disappeared. I let out a shriek. Could I get _no _straight answers here? I took off in the opposite direction, talking to myself. Trying to figure out what Dionysus meant. Somehow I wandered into the woods. I was back at the pond, looking like the nightmare version of Monet's '_Garden of Giverny_'. You'll never guess what made the nightmare.

In a rainbow made by the water and broken shafts of light was the scariest image I had ever seen. I've seen terrifying things: war, famine, my scars after the Furies attacked, but looking at the man in the mist was all those things times ten. He was the one thing all mortals feared together: death.

And death's son was kneeling in front of him on one knee, his head bent over. Lifeless black eyes turned on my and I ducked behind a tree. Not surprisingly, my heart was trying to work its way out of m. From the corner of my eye I saw Hades turn back to Nico,

"It has not yet been done."

"I'm trying. Really I am," Nico sounded different around his father. Smaller, less sure of himself. He shivered like his aviator jacket did nothing. Despite all, I wanted to run over and hug him. The Lord of the Dead kept me rooted in my place.

"Now you're going to say 'I'll try harder'. Your sister would have been finished by now. I should send your half brother to finish the job."

Nico bolted up, his eyes wide, "_Don't_. Don't send him here. If he gets around her... You know what the prophecy says-"

"Bah. 'The prophecy says, the prophecy says'. As of those words mean anything!"

"I man this with no disrespect but what if it's not her? I don't think she will- she _could_- do something like that."

"I have my sources, son, and they are never wrong. She will cause terrible things. Take care over her. Or your brother will be spending some time among the living."

Nico took a long time to answer, "As you wish."

As the connection faded Nico turned toward me. I was already gone.

I shoved my hands in my pockets and brought out my iPod. I turned it all the way up, drowning out the sounds of campers and the alarms in my own head. It was automatically on shuffle but I had a feeling the track it played wasn't so random. Jared Leto from 30 Seconds To Mars- cutie- sang and I smiled because it was so, so true.

Nico, I decided, was being his usual unbalanced self. Hades hadn't seen me. I didn't know what he meant by 'Nico's brother'. If Hades was the only one of the Big Three to keep the promise- yeah, I heard things- how threating could a four year old be? Finally, Dionysus was drunk and babbling. That was all there was to it.

Yeah. At the time I actually thought that. Satisfied, I tried to push my hair away from my face and frowned. It was frizzy, well it always was, but today especially. It was hot, too. Even oxygen felt warm when you breathed in. I shield my eyes and looked up, searching for the offender. But the Sun was nowhere to be found, even though it was late noon. Trying to ignore it, I continued on my way. But then I heard yelling from the Big House.

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**To be continued. This chapter was getting too long. Reviews are LOVE. Flames hated but accepted. It's getting pretty cold here :)**


	23. 23 I Get Some Indirect Answers

It wasn't quite yelling. It was that harsh, quiet tone that adults use when they don't want kids to hear. So now _I _wanted to hear. Taking out my earbuds, I tiptoed up the porch steps. I pressed my ear against the wall and I could make out four different voices. Rachel's New York accent that couldn't be masked by finishing school; Chiron's old and wise voice; Dinoysus's bored and slurred tone, and a voice I _knew _but couldn't place.

"It's high time you do what you promised," said Chiron.

"There's no way I'll take the blame for what she does," the last voice retorted.

"I'm the one who predicted it. I could have been wrong. I've watched her and met her. She's perfectly fine!" Rachel said.

"I don't care either way," I think you can guess who said that.

"I'm the one who had you predict it, Rachel. You haven't been wrong yet. If the Oracle had just told me sooner, just a day sooner I would have been out of the Golden State so fast. If she'd just told me-"

"Hey! _Do not_ blame my spirit's former host! You know better than anyone that you can't change what has and will happen."

"I hate it when you turn my words on me..." the last one said darkly, "I assure you I will. But only when the time is right. There are things that have to happen, trials she has to complete first."

Chiron sighed and I knew his tail was flickering irritably.

"Fine. There are some things I can't control and I suppose this is one of them. She'll wait to be claimed."

I ran hand across my forehead- not just because of the unbearable heat- but because _she _was starting to sound an awful lot like _me_. But it could't be. Because I had a faint, tiny notion of who my Olympian father was and unless the god inside was-

The was a screech as the front door swung open. The man who stepped out- he couldn't have been more than twenty-four- frowned at the door and mumbled,

'_These squeaky hinges_  
_are so very annoying_  
_Dionysus is too lazy_'

Smiling a content smile, he bounced down the stairs. Toward the _sickest_ car I had ever seen. It might have been a Lamborghini or a Bugatti but the hood ornament was a blazing sun. The cherry red paint job matched the man's red and gold varsity jacket. His hair was the same shiny straw as CG's, yet, he was built like me: lanky and lithe. He was wearing Ray Bans but he took them off as he climbed into the car. He had the same eye color as Kayla's cabin... and as me.

The car purred to life and as it did it started to glow. The temperature rose insanely and everyone within fifty feet covered their eyes. Except me. Because I was watching the car and the man turn into the _sun _and return to th sky.

I was then aware of two things:  
My eyes kind of hurt.  
And I had just seen my dad.

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**The impromptu haiku was purposely wrong, okay? So, any thoughts? Leave 'em ;) **


	24. 24 Don't Jump, Just Fall

**A/N: I didn't start the last chapter with an 'answer' because, technically, it wasn't a new chapter.**

**I hate this chapter... Okay, here's the thing. There are going to be six very important chapters after this one that I have been focusing on. This chapter is just to tie things up. I think after the fifth chapter I just mentioned I will start posting as a another story. I think I'd rather do that but give me your opinions. **

**I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians or any related characters. _Spoiler_****_: _It wasn't suicide. It was murder ;]**

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The answer was obvious.

It's obvious I'm the kind of girl who likes to run from her problems. So when I made that little revelation I _ran_. Away, and away, farther and father. Past the woods, past the lake, past the river. I didn't stop when people called to me, I didn't stop to think, I don't think I stopped to _breathe_. I kept my arms moving and my feet kicking up earth until I saw boulders stacked up against each other. They were suddenly there like a beacon. Perfect.

I ran to them and started scaling up. I ignored the cuts and scratches I was getting. I jumped from rock to rock; it was some unidentified emotion moving my limbs. Adrenaline made my blood sing, loud and clear, so I could hear nothing but '_get higher_'. I wasn't able to think and I was just fine with that. Any thought would hurt too much.

Zeus' Fist was extremely big and when I finally stopped I could see all the way to the camp borders. Then I couldn't stop the thinking. Why hadn't I listened to Thalia and stayed in on my birthday? Why hadn't Nico left me? Why hadn't I convinced Thalia stay in the night before spring break? I clenched my fist where the green nail polish was chipping away. Thalia hadn't listened. Even _now _she wouldn't listen. Maybe my anger was misdirected. Maybe it was Mom's fault. For moving us to New York. For sending me to the Institute. For ever even meeting my dad. Whoever he was he still didn't care. And it still hurt.

_Ugh_. I pressed my fingers against my closed eyelids until, when I opened my eyes, green and silver dots winked at me instead of stars. When had it gotten so dark? I could see the smoke from the campfire rising. For a second I felt I should head back, but why would the Hermes cabin care? Sara had made it clear that they were family and I wasn't. I didn't have one. I didn't have anything here and yet this was where I was stuck.

_That's true._

I gasped, looking from side to side. I then realized it was just the voice in my head. This wasn't my usual voice. It was deeper, wiser, and put ice in my veins.

"What's true," I choked out. My throat felt like sandpaper.

_That you have nothing and no one. Face it, Aline no one cares about you. No one's cared about you in a long time._

"What? Mom-"

_Especially not her. Why do you think she never told you who your father was. She knows exactly which god he is. She thought keeping you around would bring him back. When it didn't work she sent you  
away. Your mother knows every terrible thing that's going to happen. You're expendable in her eyes._

I slapped my hands over my ears as if it would keep the words away, "That's not true. Mom loves me. I never think like that."

_That's the problem. You go through life happy and ignorant. You let people and things walk all over you. You think that's perfectly fine-_

"That's not true!" I yelled into space, "I'm not like that anymore. I don't let whats happening just _happen_-"

_But you still can't make a decision when it counts. Face it, Aline, you're weak. Your destiny foretells it._

"What destiny!"

_Ah dear. That is the best and bitterest part. You wouldn't forgive yourself if you were aware of the havoc you'll cause. You're nothing but trouble._

"I'm not, I'm not bad," I didn't figure out I was crying until the cuts on my cheeks started to sting.

_Keep telling yourself that, darling. Everyone knows it. Everything you ever worked toward will only get you closer to the end. Just wait and see. The people around you will be relieved once it's done and you are gone. _

"My friends care..."

_What friends? Thalia? She doesn't care anymore. Do you see her around when you need her? Thalia has her old friends, the ones she really loves. She's back in her old life and you're the one who had to pay for her to get there. Mathias? He will _never _love you the way you love him. He will drop you the moment you can. Don't trick yourself into thinking Mathias cares. He knows his place and he knows it's not by your side. Tanner and the twins back home? Be happy if they even remember your name. They were just fine with saying goodbye. Life goes on, but yours- ha._

I couldn't believe the next thing to escape my lips, "Nico."

The voice laughed, a sound like bones snapping.

_You've fallen for him. His hair, his smile, the way his message is never clear. You can't fear him because you _like_ him too much. And that will be your downfall. You shouldn't trust him. You should know that he doesn't care for you, despises you in fact. Nico gets his way and you won't last 'til tomorrow. So you see, there is nothing for you in this life._

Suddenly I knew something was wrong. But I didn't act on it because I got an overwhelming feeling that he was right. I stood up, my body moving independent of my mind. I looked down. It was high enough. I took a step forward.

_Hmph. I see. It seems you will finally make a choice, Aline._

I took another step toward the edge, so that I was just over it. Below was hard packed dirt and jagged rocks.

_When you do it remember there is no one behind you. No one to catch you. You're all alone and that's no way to live._

I lifted my arms at my side. As if I was preparing to fly right off the edge.

_You can't stand it can you? Your family is fake and dysfunctional. You're friends won't forgive you for what you'll do. And the boy you love, well, he'd push you off the edge himself if he could. You can't stand it. So just... jump..._

All my insufficient worries left me as I got a feeling of vertigo that wasn't the same. And I fell. Back.

No. I didn't fall. I was yanked off the edge. Pulled by strong arms into a stronger chest. His voice was a static buzz in the background, "What the heck were you doing what were you thinking have you gone mad". I would have responded but I wasn't in the state of mind for that. I let my brain shut down and my body go limp. He keep me from falling and laid me down gently. I laid there, only half aware. The only thing I could hear was Nico talking softly. It was like he was singing me to sleep. I don't think he knew I could hear him, what, with the things he said,

"I can't believe it. I'm the prince of the dead and I've always thought that was the stupidest thing someone could do. The most selfish. You're anything but selfish, Aline. So why? Do you want me be miserable- at best? I never thought you could- you're just so happy. Do you know that? People have to blink when you go by. You're that warm and bright. How could you try and leave us, Sunshine? You know that no one can live without the sun. What would I tell Mathias, tell Thalia. Tell myself? Even I can't imagine life without the sun. Come on Aline, open your eyes and tell me why. What were you thinking, huh?"

I shook my head slightly and looked up. Nico leaned over me. My heart still hammered at the sight of him: a face as pale and eyes as unreadable as the dark side of the moon. His eyes widened when he saw I was really okay and his hand paused where'd he'd been brushing away my bangs.

"Hey," he said, any concern gone.

My mouth shaped words but no sound came out. Nico shook his head,

"I don't even want to hear it. I just don't understand. Why _you_?"

"...cause of you. And all the things you won't say. You won't come right out and say it, Nico. Do you hate me?" I winced as I rose onto my elbows. Nico reached out to help me but I _had_ to lean away, "Don't touch me. Just tell me. Do you hate me, Nico? Do you love me," my voice cracked, "Because I don't get anything that's going on around me right now and I don't think I will. Unless you tell me _something_."

He was no longer indifferent, but frustrated, "You aren't making any sense! What do my feelings have to do with it. You tried to jump and-"

"That's right. You played hero this time. How come you didn't let me fall? I know why, because death has to be by your hand, doesn't i-"

"Shut up! You don't understand me at all. Why I act the way I do, why I'm doing the things I am-"

"You won't let me! I'm tried of to figure out the way you feel about me. I'm already trying to figure out the way I feel- ugh! Let me put it this way, di Angelo:

'_What if I wanted to break_  
_Laugh it all off in your face_'

That if I just stopped caring what you did and what you thought. Try and hurt me all you want. You can't make me more bruised and scarred than I already am.

'_What would you do_?'

Would you try harder? Be ruder, more vile? I'm not even going to hope that you'd give up. That's a good thing about you Nico. You don't give up.

'_What if I fell to the floor_  
_Couldn't take all this anymore_  
_What would you do_?'

What if I couldn't take it anymore and tried what I just did again? Would you play hero twice? Or would you let me fall and get your wish?

'_Come break me down_'

You've done it pretty well already.

'_Marry me, bury me_'

I wouldn't be surprised if you said you loved me. You're that unstable and uncertain. Burying me, I can see that. I wouldn't care if it was literally, or you just keep making feel as bad as I do now. 'Cause guess what?

'_I am finished with you_'."

Not to my surprise Nico smirked, "All that is fine and dandy, Aline. Except I'm not finished with you."

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**That, my friends, is what you call 'thrice'. And what you call 'creepy'. So, Mat can get married in about 6 days. On a totally unrelated matter, who loves Adam Lambert? (:D) Oh and _by no means_ does this chapter say suicide is right.**


	25. 25 And Everything Changes

**A/N: Who is dreading going back to school? *raises hand* Still, I have my Ultimate New Book Reading List for Fall of 2010. Ready?:**

**The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan (duh)  
The Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare (*happy dance*)  
Maximum Ride (manga) Vol. 3 illustrated by NaRae Lee (Fang looks just like Kanda from D-Grayman)  
Kuroshitsuji/Black Butler by Yana Toboso (...well it's new to me)  
and Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins (PEETA! GALE! FINNICK!)**

**I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians or any related characters. I do not own Helena by My Chemical Romance.**

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The answer was a complete and utter yes.

The afterthought was an 'oh-no what have I done'.

But first of all, the question was 'will you accept this quest?'

It started with me at the arena: practicing the sword and trying not to think about last night. Needless to say I was failing at both. I nearly decapitated myself when I realized I owned Nico my _life_. Talk about terrifying prospects. I had no idea what came over me yesterday. Because something _had _come over me. I would never think such things. I would never take such measures. Would I?

Cause see, I never thought I would fall for Nico di Angelo. Yet I had and I still was. And the hole was only getting deeper and darker. The worst part was I couldn't run away anymore. I was getting tired and I couldn't pretend there wasn't anything wrong with me.

_Nico_, I thought and nearly dropped my shield. I felt stuck in a bad, over dramatic, teen written fanfiction. Yesterday, he had said somethings I didn't think he could ever say- and I had too. But in the end I dragged myself up- ignoring his protests- and fled. I tried to keep my distance today but he seemed determined to talk to me. To my surprise it was _Sara _who came to my rescue. Well, she came to tell me off for missing campfire, however it kept Nico away. I guess Sara repelled everyone. I wondered what Nico had meant truthfully and what he'd lied about. I wondered what _I _had meant.

So it was also a wonder that, with a mix of teenage angst and point object, I hadn't injured anyone but myself. I was sitting in the front row seats, making an effort to patch my right arm with my left hand when he found me.

"Here. Let me do it," Percy offered. I didn't object. I handed him the bandages and my arm.

"How chivalrous."

"I know, right," he winked, "Though I must say that I'm surprised to see you around here."

"I'm surprised with myself, too. I had no idea I was so masochistic."

"Ah, someone's been hitting the dictionary."

"Indubitably. Nevertheless I'm sure you're not here for vocabulary lessons. What do you want to talk to me about Jackson? If you and Annabeth are having problems I'm here for you..."

Percy gwaffed, "Good try, newb. Do me a favor and play nice?"

I feigned horror, "Are you implying I was making a move? And I thought I was no longer a newb when Connor and Travis flipped me off my mattress..."

Percy laughed again.

"Ooh," I muttered, "those little devils are going to get it..."

"Still smiling, Percy shook his head, "You're all fixed up. I came to get you because we're needed at the Big House."

My eyebrows shot up. I started sweating, thinking someone _had _seen me last night, "A- am I in t-trouble?"

"Not in the least. Let's go," Percy got up and kindly waited for me to catch up.

Assembled around a table tennis table were the camp directors, some satyrs, and a bunch of campers. Most of them I couldn't name, excluding Thalia, CG, and Nico. Yah. The gang was all here.

"Thank you for fetching her, Percy. Please take a seat, Aline," Chiron said to the two us. Thalia patted the chair next to her. I hesitated- thinking of what I'd heard last night- but only for a second. Thalia was my friend. I sat down, avoiding the dark eyes that were inevitably locked on me.

"We have called this meeting of cabin counselors because we have a position open on a quest."

The room broke into hat I like to call the sound of madness. Everybody started talking at once and gesticulating wildly. It was amazing nobody lost an eyeball. Though Clarisse looked like she wanted to tear out a few. Thalia looked chill beside me.

"Should I be joining in?" I asked, gesturing to the madness.

"Nah."

Chiron cleared his throat but they continued. He did it again and again until finally, Thalia snapped her fingers. Just like she did before a teacher forgot to give test. Hmm. Everyone shut up. Chiron went on,

"The quest was delivered to Miss Grace-"

"-Hey!" Kyo from Nemesis cut in, "She's not even a camper anymore! How can she get a quest?"

"Ask the Oracle, Mister Sohma. As I saying, the quest was delivered to miss Grace and being a demigod she can- and has- accepted. Now she will choose her companions."

Thalia stood up with all the confidence and black eyeliner I'd loved.

"This is easy enough. It's a simple quest, more of a re-con mission than anything. So I don't need any heavy artillery," she glanced at Jake Mason, "or some heavier sorcery," she nodded at Joss, "so I'll take Annabeth-"

"I accept," she said smoothly.

"-and Aline."

It took my a good three minutes to process that because: everyone else looked surprised and Nico stood up, slamming his palms against the table. He started arguing like I'd seen before but Chiron stopped them before it got violent.

"Please! Allow Aline to accept or decline and this meeting is _over_."

Thalia and Nico both reluctantly sat down. They didn't stop glaring at each other though. The campers looked at me and I squirmed under their quizzical stares. Annabeth looked up from her book long enough to make a 'hello' face and I stammered out, "Yes. I totally accept."

Mr. D, eager to hurry things along, stood and said, "If all is good and done then rest tonight and be prepared to venture in the morning. This meeting is adjourned."

Chairs were pushed back, looks and whispers were exchanged behind hands as the rest left. I got up, too, and turned to Thalia. But she was laughing with Annabeth about some monsters they'd fought years ago. I tapped her on the shoulder- I needed a lot of explanation- but she waved me away. I tried to hide the hurt on my face as Nico was standing in the doorway. I tried to slip past him but he stuck out an arm, trapping me between the him and the wall. I face-palmed myself internally.

"What do you want?" I said, refusing to meet his eyes. I kept my gaze planted on his black True Religion high tops and my scuffed up Converse.

"Maybe a thank you?" he lifted my chin so I had to watch him bat his eyelashes. I almost bit him. I _swear_. Instead of being flustered- because I _really_ wanted to be- I stood on my tip toes and leaned forward until there were only inches between us.

"You're welcome."

"That's not what I meant," Nico leaned toward me, too. Centimeters. I could see the trail of the vein on his pale cheek, the ring of light brown in his eyes.

"What did you mean?" I didn't dare breathe, much less move.

"Why do you think?" he moved forward. I made a mental note not to let him talk again, lest he eliminate any space between us.

"I never know what you mean. Though you were pretty upset I'm going on this quest. Were you worried about me? You're not going to- gasp- _miss_ me are you?"

Nico opened his mouth but I slapped my fingertips over it. He lowered his eyelashes and started talking fast against my fingers. It tickled. I pulled my hand away and hid it behind me.

"Maybe. Possibly," he said answering my previous questions, "Anything you want to add?" he said, dangerously close. Close enough to feel my heart breathing through my ribs, the heat from my burning face.

"Ali-_ ne_?" someone called. I would have jumped out of my sneakers if they weren't tied so tightly. I looked over Nico's arm to see Mat, who looked very puzzled.

"Am I interrupting something?" said my poor, terminally clueless friend.

"No," "Yes," me and Nico said simultaneously and respectively.

Mat twitched, "I can come back later..."

"That would be nice," Nico agreed. Mat scuttled away. I took the time to smack Nico in the shoulder before ducking away and chasing down Mat.

"Dude wait!" I called, "Are you _seriously_ going to make me run after you! You have a good ten inches on me! I already screwed up both of my arms today are you going to force me to break a leg!"

Mathias subsequently stopped. I sucked in air and probably looked like a fish out of water.

"What was that?" Mat asked.

"We were just- _wheeze_- talking."

"Ah. _Talking_."

"No. The type of talking that involves words."

"Really? I didn't hear very many of those."

"Why- _wheeze_- were you looking for me."

"I heard that you got a quest," Mat must have seen my expression when he said that word, "It's all around camp. Are you okay?"

"Dandy."

"Is someting bothering you?"

"Possibly."

"You want to talk about it?

"...yes please."

He started walking, slow enough for me to keep pace, "Go on..."

So I told Mathias about _everything_. Everything since leaving California, meeting Thalia, meeting Nico, falling for Nico, seeing that god, and all I'd thought that night. I left out the part about an accidental suicide- he was already looking at me funny.

Mat whistled, "You've got quite the baggage."

"Tell me something I don't know."

"Okay. You don't know that Thalia would never leave you behind. She's just her. Thalia's knows she doesn't have to worry about you here so she doesn't."

"But _I'm_ just me. As pathetic as it sounds I need to know someone, just one person, _cares_ enough to worry."

"Well, you've got one right here."

I looked up at Mathias and I knew he was telling the truth. I smiled,

"Thanks," was all I could really say.

"Anything else?"

Mat leaned against a tree trunk. His glasses were teetering on the edge of his nose. I reached out and pushed them back up for him. He didn't flinch away but I didn't dare take it as a sign.

"I don't think Annabeth likes me very much," I admitted, "I wish you could come on the quest instead."

" '_What's the worst that I could say?_  
_Things are better if I stay_  
_So long and goodnight_' " Mat quoted, "You'd be a lot better off without me."

"Yeah," I contemplated, "I would."

I didn't mind as Mathias slugged me in the shoulder.

"So this is goodbye?" I asked, hoping he wouldn't say yes.

"Of course it's not."

I grinned for what felt like the first time in a lifetime, "Good. Very good."

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**Sorry. The end was kind of rushed and there were some mistakes but Mexican food beckons. Did you notice the Fruits Basket reference- which I do not own? Does it fit? Re-re-review? Plus, I feel like Nico is too bishounen.**


	26. 26 I Don't Want It To End

**A/N: I have probably shown zero interest in the Harry Potter series but I was rewatching films 3 and 4 and I realized two things:  
****a) Harry Potter deserves to be the world wide phenomenon it is. It's superb. And  
b) R Pattinson is a frickin' _god_. Or was. He'd be the god of actors, and hotness, and all the good things in the world. Sigh*. Go look up this clip from'Little Ashes' if you want to see Robert Pattinson kiss a guy :)**

**Oh and this is a major turning point in the story. Yah! It was up for, like, 2 minutes yesterday but I had to delete it and fix some stuff. Sorry^^' !**

**Disclaimer: Do I have to? I do? Fine. I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians. I do not own 'I Won't Say I'm In Love'.**

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The answer was about four o' clock a.m.

I had packed the night before- I wouldn't need much- and said bye to everyone who matter- which amounted to Mat and no one else. I climbed out of bed quietly but it didn't matter. Elizabeth- who had the bunk above me- could sleep through a automan invasion. Actually, she had. Twice.

I grabbed my messenger bag from under the bed and shoved my iPod in my pocket. I dreaded untangling the earbud wires later. I slipped out of the cabin into the red light of early morning. There were some clouds in the distance with a literal gold lining. It was beautiful and I was secretly glad to have the sight all to myself. Then I spotted someone else. Kayla was walking out of the Apollo cabin and headed the same direction as me- the Big House. She saw me too and waved me over. I bit my lip, I was a bit hesitant, but I walked over to her. For someone who couldn't have been older than twelve, she was awfully intimidating. She studied my from over her glasses- the way a teacher did before they called me out in class.

"I'm quite surprised you were chosen for the quest."

Kayla started walking and I eventually realized she expected me to follow. Catching up I laughed nervously and said, "Yes, I was quite surprised myself."

She was not amused, "As far as I know you can't so anything."

I thought about that. She was right.

"Most demigods," she went on, "develop their powers even before their parents claim them."

"Maybe I don't have any," I joked half heartedly.

"Maybe." She looked like she was going to say something more but we'd arrived. Kayla went up the stairs and to the back- the infirmary.

"Uh- bye!" I called. She waved from over her shoulder. I was relieved to be out of her presence; the next time I saw her would be _much _to soon. On top of Half Blood Hill, right where the border ended was a cluster of silhouettes. I could easily make out Chiron and I knew the others would be Thalia, Annabeth, Mr. D, and the- er- security guard, Argus. Thalia waved to me and I lifted a hand, distracted. There was someone else, pacing the base of the hill. Upon further inspection I realized it was Nico. Seriously? I didn't know why the Fates were messing with me so much. Could I not leave this place without some sort of confrontation?

Against my better judgement I walked in his direction. He looked up as I approached and gave me a small, lopsided smile, "Hey."

I was very confused. What happened to the Nico di Angelo of yesterday: the volatile, in your face, kind of scary one?

Nico made a face- there he was- "Don't look at me like that. I _never _get up this early. Not even the dead would."

"So why did you today?"

He rolled his eyes but he seemed to be joking, "To talk to you Sunshine."

There was this odd- and slightly painful- pull at the back of my heart. Like my heart was thinking 'omg! he cares, he cares, he cares!' True, it was the part of my heart that usually got me hurt but right now I didn't mind, "S-so talk."

"I'm worried about you."

"Why the sudden change? Is it about the..." the words got stuck in my throat, "the jumping thing? Before you couldn't have cared less about me. You hated me! Have you forgotten-" I stopped before I could say 'the two times you tried to kill me', "I mean, I'm flattered but if someone's going to worry about me I'd rather it wasn't you."

He ran a hand through his black hair, "That's _just _the problem. It can't be anyone _but _me."

I noted with a fright that that sounded a lot like what I'd heard two nights ago. I ignored that, "Why does it have to be you?"

And Nico kind of exploded, "Because no one else knows!"

"Goddamn, knows what! If you want me to believe you, you have to start telling me the whole truth!"

Nico was like a balloon with no air, "That's what I can't do."

"Then I'm done here," I made a move toward the hill but Nico grabbed my left arm. It was the arm with the scars but, strangely, his grip didn't hurt. It was like it was just fine again. Nico kept his hold on my hand, "Just- here." He fumbled around in his jacket pocket and pulled out his ring. As he lifted my left hand my heart and brain started pounding and I think my eye started to twitch. Nico slipped the heavy stone ring onto my thumb. Not my ring finger.

Because, actually, it would have been a really crappy engagement ring.

What was with all the magical jewelry?

Luckily, Nico was just as flustered by that as I was. He tripped over his tongue, "Do me a favor. Take this with you. And bring it back. Promise me you'll be okay. I know that if you bring it back everything will be okay. For everyone else, and... between us."

It was a weird request and it was scaring me a bit. But I wanted to make good on it, "I promise."

That made him relax slightly, "Thanks. I know you're confused and probably upset. But everything I did and everything I'm doing right now is for a reason.

Including this."

Remember that little 'omg he can make me do whatever he wants' problem? It was like he was telling me not to move because I was frozen in place as he raised one hand to caress my cheek. I raised my gaze to his face, which readable for the first time in the short time I'd known him. He was blinking rapidly. I knew the amazement, nervousness, longing in this eyes mirrored my own. Nico moved toward me and I shut my eyes. I felt a pair of lips pressed to my cheek, firm but gentle. And chocolaty sweet.

"It's gonna be alright," his lips brushed my cheek. He dropped his hand and stepped away. I still had my eyes closed. I can't even say how I felt just then. It was like- like listening to an acoustic piano piece. You forget every feeling, every_thing_, except for the beating of your heart and the tears threatening to spill and the smallest smile and the warm feeling building in your chest and you want it to stretch out forever and you _don't want it to end_.

Cold fingertips tucked my hair behind my ear, "You should get going. I've already made you late."

"Yeah," I opened my eyes to see Nico looking up, down, anywhere but at me. I should have left but we know I'm not the strong. I put a hand on Nico's shoulder and stood on my tip toes, planting a kiss on his cheek that I hoped was just as fine.

Nico finally looked at me, his palm pressed to his cheek, his lips parted in shock. There was so much I wanted to say and just as much I wanted to hear him say. But as Mat would say, _it's not the time for all the answers_.

I gripped the strap of my messenger bag and shrugged, offering the best smile I could. Nico bit his lip uncharacteristically adorably.

"Bye."

"Bye."

I turned again, and headed for the hill. I walked slowly and surely, resisting the urge to run back to Nico and do something _stupid_. On the crown of Half Blood Hill, the camper leaders made final preparations. Annabeth fed Peleus an apple and Thalia examined the tree she was trapped in with a look of contempt. She threw up her fishnet stocking covered arms when she saw me, "And she finally arrives!"

"It was nice of you to decide to join us," Annabeth teased.

"It was, wasn't it?" I mused.

Thalia looked me over. After knowing me for over a year, she must have been used to my dopey grin. But the grin I had on then was overly dopey.

"What's that?" she nodded to my left hand.

I looked down at it and the ring. It was simple- maybe obsidian- with Greek writing inscribed on the inside and an embossed profile of someone I couldn't make out, it was too worn down.

"A promise ring."

Thalia looked alarmed, "From who! Did Mathias suddenly start playing for the other team? Give it here!"

I scoffed, " '_No chance. No way_'."

Somewhere the Muses started singing 'I Won't Say I'm In Love'.

But here, Thalia's eyebrows shot to epic proportions when recognition dawned on her.

"Is that-"

I cut in, "Don't we have monsters to kill?"

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**Ick. Romance. I can't stand it x3 . Though I'd like it, Nico is not just uber-worried about our heroine. It's bigger than she knows and everyone else thinks.**


	27. 27 Pandemonium Is OnDemand

**A/N: Ohmygosh. Anyone heard of People to People? It's a program that sends "exceptional" students overseas during the summer. I got invited to visit France, Italy, and Greece! And so did my best friend! That inspired me to get off my arse and write.**

**Ho faticato a trovare una ricerca così io non sono orgoglioso di questo :(.**

**Faccio Percy Jackson non proprie e gli Olimpi.  
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The answer was a quest.

It was what Thalia kept calling a 'recon' mission and what Annabeth insisted was a waste of time. To let you form your own opinion I should tell you the objective. We were driving out to New York to check a message we'd gotten about a group using Hecate's magic. Like spells and occult. It may have sounded like a small matter- humans meddling in something they didn't understand- but some things made it seem more serious. Grover said he could feel nature spirits being hurt, and some of them hadn't reported to him in a long time. He was getting worried and pestering Chiron. Apparently, it was enough for the Oracle to deliver a quest on.

It was a nerve wracking ride toward the city, where we'd be staying for a few days. Thalia was busy polishing her bow and Annabeth had her head buried in a book. She was mouthing the words, stopping occasionally, and frowning. With a start I remembered she was dyslexic, too. She came off as too... smart or... _good_ for the stuff that made us the same. I keep glancing Argus in the driver's seat. I wanted to talk to him. But I'd heard he was mute because he had an eye in his mouth. It must of hurt terribly when he bit his tongue.

Sighing, and with a lack of having nothing better to do, I started humming. It was one of those old, old cabaret songs my mom loved. Less than halfway through Thalia looked up from her weapon and her dark blue eyes met mine. She sighed,

"What's wrong?"

I acted like I had no idea what she meant: lifting my eyebrows and putting my mouth into a little circle, "What do you mean?"

"Well, you're humming but you keep forgetting the next part. You _never _forget. Only when you're worried or down or confused."

"I'm none of those things."

"Come one, Aline," she rolled her eyeliner rimmed eyes, "don't you think I know you well enough by now? You've been acting so strange since we came to Camp Half Blood."

The small, cynical part of me wanted to say, 'How would you know? You've barely paid any mind to me since we left Darkwoud'. But I'd listened to that part enough lately, hadn't I? Instead I said,

"I'm doing just fine. You don't need to worry."

"People get hurt on quests, no matter how small," Thalia said, a glint in her eyes, "We just want to make sure _you'll_ be okay."

"I'll be just fine," I said absentmindedly, "I promised."

Thalia looked confused, "What?"

My face heated up and I looked away, knowing my cheeks were a ruddy red, "It's nothing," I mumbled. Thalia didn't push me further, which was a good thing, seeing how my attention had gone out the window, literally. We'd finally arrived in the city and after three trips I couldn't help but be amazed. The crowd of people in the city was just like the rivers that ran through it: dark, churning, and endless.

My ADHD picked up every other detail. The great giants of gray that served as buildings were adorned with flashing, blinding signs. They advertised everything from surf clothing to toothpaste. The was a trio of dancers performing to foreign music, and street vendors hawked jewelry and books. So often I saw a group of friends huddled close together, giggling and shouting. I couldn't help but feel jealous. But green was not my color. The smell of metal, paint, fast food, and perfume found it's way through the windows- with the undeniable scent of gasoline. Annabeth chuckled behind me at my starstruck expression but I didn't care.

We pulled up to an almost _majestic_ hotel. It was rather boxy but so pretty, with a golden glow and more windows than _I_ could ever count. We tumbled out of the van, ready to get out after the maddening long and still drive. Three demigods in a car for more than thirty minutes? Not a good idea. I took a deep breathe before I remembered it was New York City air I was breathing in. My friends held back laughter as I hacked up smog and I-wasn't-sure-what. After Argus fetched our, um, _luggage_, we entered the lobby which was even more distracting then the outside. It was all white marble and gold chandeliers and gilded _everything_. An intricate skylight let in the faint star light.

"How can the camp afford this?" I asked in awe.

"They can't," Annabeth said casually. I didn't ask anything more. In my time of knowing her I'd learned asking Annabeth more questions equaled a more confused me.

Thalia stepped up to the reception with an air of confidence, ignoring the upturned noses and questioning glances of people taking in her ratty silver ski jacket, ripped up jeans, and abundance of chains. I couldn't hear her from where I stood but I could read the expressions of both her and the receptionist. She was calm but he was irritated. The more Thalia talked the more annoyed he got. He picked up the phone- I figured to call security- when Thalia snapped her fingers. I could hear it all the way over here and I knew it was her that did it. Argus and Annabeth looked undisturbed. Everyone else in the vicinity got glass eyed, only for a split second, then went back to whatever they were doing. The receptionist offered Thalia a room key, and she offered him a smile, the one that meant _she'd_ won and _you'd_ lost.

Thalia practically skipped back to us. She waved her fingers, "Still got it."

I decided to still not ask.

Argus handed us the little baggage we'd brought and gave curt nods to my companions. They nodded back and headed to the elevator. All sixty something of his eyes widened in surprise when I threw my arms around Argus and gave him a quick hug.

"Bye," I called, walking toward the elevator.

"Good luck," he said back. _Hm_. He didn't have a eye there at all. Only a tongue ring.

The elevator ride to the fourth floor was excruciatingly long. We practically burst into the carpeted hallway. Thalia unlocked the door. The room was decent sized, with two queen sized beds, a television, bathroom to one side, and a comfortable looking couch. The other two immediately started arguing over who got stuck with the couch. I ignored them and collapsed face down on the crisp white sheets. Ah, they smelled like _clean_. There was nothing wrong with the Hermes cabin but this was _nice_.

Bouncing around the room, I demanded we watch every On-Demand movie, go to Times Square, and have a hotel room wrecking party. Annabeth expertly shut down every proposal: 'too expensive', 'it's no where near here', 'no...just no'.

"We need to get rest anyway, Aline," Thalia consoled the sulking me, "Maybe tomorrow, okay? I'll buy you hot dogs with anything you want."

I brightened instantaneously, "Okay!"

Annabeth sighed, apparently immune to my cutesy charms. Thalia returned to cleaning weapons, and Annabeth put on the local news but I passed right out, somehow exhausted. It wasn't until the next morning- when I found it quite unnerving- that I hadn't dreamed.

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**Oh yeah. Who read THE CLOCKWORK ANGEL? It was- gawd *hearts*.**


	28. 28 AN: Apology You Probs Don't Need

**A/N: *sigh* I can't type enough 'sorry's to express how apologetic I am for not udpating. I could **_**try **_**but FF doesn't let me type words that long, haha.******************** So here's the thing: school. And family. And other stuff. So I've been super busy. I'm not sure when I can update again. I have the story line down but not the writing. I want to give up on 'Complicated' but I won't, okay? For you guys :3**

**Lots of love and, again, sorry. I plan on having the next chapter up by, say, Friday? But you should know by now not to trust anything I say...**

**~Lunar**


	29. 29 I Walk With Shadows

**A/N: Look, it's not Friday :) I guess its a bit too long but I hope you don't mind.**

**This chapter- at the end- is T! Well T enough orz.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own, okay. Nothing. Nada. Grrr. I do not own 'My Apocalypse' by Escape the Fate. Wow. That is just so incredibly fitting to the next chapter or so. The video was, um, oh yeah- 'The Beast and the Harlot' from Avenged Sevenfold.**

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The answer was a rude awakening.

In the form of a steel toed boot to the stomach and an irritated 'get up, τεμπέλης κώλο '. Moaning and clutching my middle I opened blurry eyes to see Thalia standing over me in full battle gear. My eyes were half open and clouded but I hoped they conveyed all the contempt I was currently feeling.

"What happened to the caring older sister act from yesterday?" I rasped. Thalia smirked.

"What happened to waking up before _five in the evening_?"

I bolted upright and looked around. I took note of Annabeth, polishing a shield on the couch and I looked out the window. There was too much pollution. Light and otherwise but I could tell it was getting late. I stretched, my joints making 'pop'ing noises. I turned to Thalia and asked,

"Why didn't you wake me up earlier? How did I sleep so long?"

"You were out cold," Annabeth answered, "we shook you and turned on the television and everything but you didn't even flinch. It was...creepy. Like you were dead."

I bit my lip, trying hold back a shiver at her words. I hadn't felt a thing. Literally. I didn't dream, I didn't kick in my sleep. I swung my feet over the edge of the bed and excused myself. In the bathroom I turned the shower to the coldest it could get and stepped in fully clothed. Hey, I was off to battle. I didn't _really _need a shower. The freezing water that ran down my back and curled my hair did little to wake me up. Even when I faced the spray of water head on I couldn't shake a heavy, and if I admit, ominous feeling.

A knock on the door snapped me out of my lapse.

"Aline?" Annabeth called from the other side. I didn't answer. "Are you alright?" I just blinked. There was a loud sigh and a frustrated 'I'm coming in'. When I didn't answer the door opened and gave me peek of Annabeth in her gray armor. Her eyes, the same color, were confused but calculating, "What are you doing?"

I lifted one shoulder and dropped it again. Annabeth took a step towards me, hesitant, as if I'd spring any moment. When I didn't she finally walked over. She turned off the tap and wrapped a fluffy white towel around my shoulders.

"Are you okay?" she asked carefully.

I shrugged again.

"Do you want to talk about it?" she said in a way that made it obvious 'talking about it' wasn't something she did very often. The fact she offered to _me _made me chuckle slightly.

"I would if I knew what was wrong."

She thought, "Are you scared?"

It was my turn to think. A 'yes' almost slipped from my lips. I was...scared. Just not of what the other two would think I was scared of. I wasn't frightened about the remainder the quest. Not at all. But I was scared. Something dark was settling in the back of my mind, slowly but surely drving me towards an edge I couldn't see. But of course I didn't say any of that.

"I'm fine," I pulled the corners of my mouth into a convincing smile. My mom would really be disappointed in how much I was lying lately, "Now get out so I can take a bath, okay?"

Annabeth obliged. I showered and pulled on the clothes Thalia had set aside for me: a light shirt and a worn pair of jeans I'd always borrowed back at Darkwoud. I stepped back into the room, holding my still damp hair in a towel. I raised an eyebrow when Thalia gushed, "Look ay my little sister, all ready to go kick some bad guys butts! Here, let me fix that birds nest of hair..."

I couldn't object as she plopped me on a bed and pulled a brush off the dresser. Annabeth was fiddling with the remote.

"The channel won't change..." she stated. She kept pressing the button but it remained on one of those music video stations. We'd picked up at the end. Something smoky and black twisted through the video girl's body. She didn't even wither in pain as it overtook her, turning her hazel eyes into inky depths.

"Thalia..." I squeaked. But she didn't hear me. She hummed as she worked the brush through my hair.

'_In a garden surrounded_  
_By fire and trees_  
_Through the smoke a silhouette I can barely see_  
_There's a man with an axe _  
_Standing in the rain_'

"The hel-" I began, as sparks flew from the electrical socket. Something was slithering its way out, not quite a solid or a gas. It was like a vine, working its way towards me. I stuttered to a stop as it wrapped around my ankle. It was like a lightning shock in the rain. It was in my _veins_. I threw my head back and grasped for my throat which I was _sure_ was filling with smoke. On the insides of my eyelids- when had I shut my eyes- there was a silhouette. Someone was trying to speak to me.

_'Looked me straight in the eyes_  
_This is what he had to say_'

Trying to warn me. But I couldn't hear them over the terrible screams and hollers...

'_Never fall asleep_  
_You won't wake up_  
_Destroy the guillotine_  
_Before he does_'

Before he does. Before he does. Before he does. Before he does. I clutched at my ears, trying to keep out the sounds. But how could I when the noise was in my own head?

"Shut it off," I whimpered. The grating, pounding clamor continued, "_Shut it off_!," I said, again. Only much, much louder. And just like that it was gone. All that was left was white noise and white light and Annabeth and Thalia looking at me like I was crazy. Because, really, maybe I was. Thalia gently pried my hands off my ears all while saying, "It's okay, Aline. You're fine. The music is off. You are fine."

"Am I," I slurred.

"Is she?" Annabeth piped up.

Thalia didn't offer an answer. Instead she laid my head on a pillow and pulled Annabeth aside. They converged in hushed voices that I didn't have the energy to try and understand. I picked up things here and there:

"-the Hades is wrong with her?"

"-don't know. Do you think-"

"-that'd be safest. For us-"

"-_and_ her."

It sounded like _they_ had reached a decision. Thalia sat beside me on the bed and patted my forehead.

"Aline," she said in the voice that meant she'd lost my batteries or I wasn't getting a doughnut, "we need to finish the quest. It's our obligation. But you're not well. Maybe you have a concussion, or a fever, or maybe it's like the time we were escaping to Camp Half Blood. So we think-"

I cut her off, "You guys think that it would be better if I stayed here and rested while you went and played hero," I tried to raise a hand and wave away any objections, "That's fine. I don't care. My head feels like its gone to Hades anyway. I wouldn't be much use."

"See? Even she knows it," Annabeth added. I glared weakly at the blonde. Ignoring her, Thalia asked once again if I was okay with it. I said yes.

"Okay," she sighed in relief. I watched them through a-maybe-possibly-could-have-been-fever induced haze as they prepared for battle. I only moved to ask if I could order room service.

The answer was a predictable no.

They were out of the door within minutes, a flurry of mother-like instructions and shining armor. I rested my head back against a pillow, relishing it cold touch on my flushed skin. My eyelids felt like a thousand pounds and I shut them with a sigh. The windows were closed and the TV was off; Annabeth made sure to switch off the lights as they left. All there was was the sheets around me and the steady drip, drip of the sink. But within a moment I couldn't feel even that.

_Never fall asleep_, he'd reminded me. _Nico_ had...

I grunted, trying to open my eyes but they wouldn't budge.

I was on a beach, soft white sand shifting beneath my feet. Waves lapped at the sand only a few feet away but I didn't feel scared of the miles of clear blue water. I stood under the shade of a palm tree but the sun was shining brightly enough, reflecting off seashells and the rocky cliffs on either side of the beach. I took a deep breath, expecting to taste salt and sunlight in the air but there was nothing. I frowned.

There was a tap on my shoulder. With a start I turned around and light brown eyes meet green. I gasped and swept over every inch of the boy in front of me from the curly brunet hair, to the tanned limbs, to the board shorts and the shark tooth ankle bracelet. Tanner. I spoke the name but I didn't _hear_ it. My first real best friend grinned like he heard me anyway; a surf god's pearly white grin because that's what Tanner was. I wrapped my arms around him but again something was wrong. Where was the could of coconut oil that followed him everywhere, or the constant heat radiating from skin that spent to much time in the sun and sea?

Tanner pulled away and patted my head, a frustratingly familiar gesture, then pointed back toward the sea. Playing in the ocean were a pair of boys I mistook for Connor and Travis. But the red hair gave it away. Griffin and Alec were little blazing dots in the stretch of blue ocean. They waved and I did too. I tried to call them over but they shook their heads and went back to splashing each other. Something tugged on my right arm. I took to the side and Mathias was smiling at me. Except his scars were _gone_. His eyes weren't as bright.

Then Nico appeared and took a hold of my left hand. I hissed at the sudden pain shooting through my scars. I tried to reclaim my hand but Nico wouldn't let go. He cocked his head and looked down at me with an innocent smile. It was... incorrect. The smile was off by half a cetimeter, no dimple. Sure, I'd only seen him smile- what- once? But I'd memorized it.

What are you doing, I tired to ask him.

What I was supposed to, he responded. He twisted my already bruised left arm behind my back, and there was the biting press of a dagger to my throat. Same place I'd been a little over two months ago. But it wasn't the same person.

I said that accusation aloud and he laughed, dropping the blade and stepping away, hands held up in mock surrender.

Someone finally figured it out. Too bad, it's a little too late.

I was deaf in this dream, one of the wost things I could imagine. So I didn't hear the roar of the toxic wave behind me. The ugly, oily monstrosity swept _my_ twins out to sea but the acid ate away at them first. My stomach churned with the ocean. Some stray droplets hit my legs and I hit the ground, gasping in pain and panic. The water was like...

The River Styx, he said. Are you getting it yet?

Thalia- when had she appeared- stood in front of me and frowned into the distance. She was oblivious the the destruction behind and before her. I strained to look where she was. I only caught the brunet fall toward the embrace of the rocks below. I turned away, now glad I couldn't hear in this_ nightmare_.

A hand jerked my head roughly toward Thalia.

Demigod. Hero. Ha. You couldn't save him. What makes you think you could ever save me...

And the hand disintegrated, turning into gold pine leaves blown away in an impromptu wind. Only he was left.

What are going to do with me, I asked defiantly.

A much too cold hand stroked my cheek. I flinched at the touch.

Whatever I want, he answered simply, leaning down to my height. And his lips were attacking mine and my back was forced against the sand and it raw cold and it felt wrong, wrong, wrong, and I couldn't fight back because my left arm as useless and he pinned my right arm above my head and I couldn't breathe, and where was the coca cola and chocolate and unexpected gentleness because this was just suffocating and brusing, like drowning, like falling, like wanting to _jump _and it finally made sense, I finally pieced it together but it was too late. But maybe it wasn't.

Because right then, the dream was over.

And right then, the nightmare was just beginning.

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**OH MY GOD(dess) . I wrote HET(ero). It's a frickin' miracle! Well, actually, it felt really gross :P I kind of wish I was a gay guy so I could just write yaoi *is shot*.**

**Tanner is tan .-. I feel lame. Griffin and Alec equal Hikaru and Kaoru in episode seven of Ouran o.O ? Meep...**

**This is the part where my story starts having something called a 'plot'.**


	30. 30 Bad Blood, Part 1

**A/N: Wow. I didn't think the last chapter was that confusing o||o. But I can't explain it without ruining everything. At the end of this story I will post the explanation of everything that's come to be in Complicated. Then start it's SEQUEL, _Unraveling_. You read that right.**

**Hopefully this chappie will clear a few things. This is what you get when I'm depressed, had to watch a really terrifying historical movie, and finish reading _Lies_. Here is chapter 30:**

**Bad Blood, Part 1: Daemon In My View**

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The answer was an amazing pounding headache of amazingly epic proportions.

The kind of headache you got when you tried to read _The Iliad_ in one weekend or at the end of a vivid dream. Mine was from the latter.

You know how it's never a good thing to wake up with something resembling a hangover, in a place you don't recognize? Well I did. I sat up- and immediately regretted it. My head was trying to fall off my shoulders for sure. Still, I pulled myself into a semi-upright position and looked around. There was a moment of fright when I thought I'd gone blind. But no, I blinked and my eyes adjusted to the dark.

I was underground, that much was definite. There was dark earth beneath me and above me but the walls were a rough dark stone. There was no source of light as far as I could tell but I could make out somethings. I was in a corridor that went on in front of me and behind me. No ends were visible. Two more paths stretched out on either side of me. When I as little my mom told me '_If you ever get lost, stay where you are and wait for someone to come and find you_'. But my next actions were justified for two reasons: I never listened, and I was all alone. So I turned around and walked.

What could have been hours, minutes, _days_, later I was contemplating turning around and going another way. I was coming across an amazing amount of nothing. Besides some gray roots that hung with crimson fruits poking through the...roof, it was just me and dirt. After several more minutes a doorway appeared at my right. Surprised, I entered it.

Where I was now was very different. It was still underground but now it was a cavern that had no end either. Ornately craved columns reached to the unseen sky. There was an obvious stone pathway but I could have wandered any direction. I recognized this place. Why couldn't I place it-what was that at my feet? The habitual silver shapes of spirits swirled all around me. Somehow I knew they belonged here. The fog was never the ghost of one person for long but they all whispered the same message: turn back, no further, stop,_ last chance_.

The forgotten band of metal around my finger grew cold. I moved onward.

I stayed on the path, occasionally tripping on loose stones. I wrapped my arms around myself, more for than comfort than anything else. It was dark, dank, and I was _scared_. But I went on, one foot in front of the other. Until I felt a shake. I froze, then told myself it was all in my head. I stepped forward and the earth shook again, twice as hard. _Well_, this was great.

A dull pain thumped in my stomach. I was in no shape to run for my life. I did anyways. The path I'd already walked crumbled away, falling into nothingness. I did not want to follow. So I ran faster as the columns around me shook and broke, leaving me to dodge the fragments. I had not had a destination in mind so when I saw a light I skirted toward it. A piece of stone scratched my forehead, cutting it open. With blood streaking into my eye, I didn't notice a stone in my way. I went down without a sound and got back up the same way. It wasn't until I reached my target that I stopped moving.

I collapsed, all too eager to greet what looked like a marble ground. The chamber was circular and made of the same dark mineral as everything else I'd seen. Torches of neon blue and green Greek fire hung at odd intervals; except for those there was nothing but me, my breathing and the remains of the pillars behind me. I was trapped. But alive, which- honestly- was more than I had any right to expect. I sat there and pulled my knee close to my body, wincing. I had sprained something, no doubt about it. I tried to come up with a plan but nothing would work. I had no cell phone, no drachmas- no water for that matter. I also had no idea where I was.

_The place everyone goes eventually_.

The voice was loud and clear and awfully familiar. It came from the other side of the room. I looked on in horror, as someone began to materialize.

Rattled, my mind was splitting itself into three parts. One part was terrified, wanting nothing more than to jump up and streak out of there. That part would have won if my leg wasn't in pain. The next part wanted to scream and and fight and get rid of them but one look over there told me there was no way I could win. I clutched at Thalia's necklace. The last was more submissive, telling me to go find a white flag and give up. To lament and take whatever was about to happen. That part won. The figure strode further into my view.

I almost gasped. He couldn't have been older than, who, Tanner? Just a boy, about eighteen. He was on the taller side. He was almost as gaunt as a skeleton and certainly as white. His eyes were almond shaped and looked like chips of ice. Other than that he was androgynous and looked a little like a girl. He was completely emotionless. There was no hint he'd even noticed me, besides the smirk on his bloody red lips. Vampire? No, but something damn close. His white blond hair hung past his shoulders like a warped halo. Silver snake bite piercings on his bottom lip reflected the fire.

Those eyes met mine and I think I started to cry. A dark spot appeared on my knee. A tear? I thought so. His gaze... the best way I could describe it was being a picked flower. I felt I was wilting and subconsciously curled into myself. I didn't look up as I heard echoes of his footsteps approaching. I did flinch however.

"First of all I'm not going to kill you. But I could. Always remember that _I could_. Do you know why you're here?"

He was straight forward. No introduction, no small talk. Not even contempt. Just asking for facts. I didn't give any.

"Look at me," he demanded. I didn't.

The back of his hand struck me faster than I thought possible. The hammered, engraved rings he wore on almost every finger left bruises on my cheek that would turn a lovely green over time. The actual pain came later, along with the metallic taste of blood in my mouth. I spit it out. Who was this guy?

He growled in frustration. Then he stopped and sighed. He knelt to my height- quite a way down- and the loose black t-shirt he wore changed into a flowing tattered robe, the color of dried blood, then back. His eyes... black as night, just as deep.

The fingers he placed under my chin were punishingly cold but he turned my head gently. There was nothing gentle in his eyes.

"I'm sorry," without a hint of remorse he said, "Besides Daddy doesn't like it when I break my little half-brother's toys.

"Then again," the snake bites rose, "I don't care."

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A/N: I lied. This probably clarified nothing. But, um, put up with me. The last sentence means the boy smiled. Unless your confused about that to :P (is discouraged). Also, I am fail. Did you know there was a preview button while editing documents o||o?**


	31. 31 Bad Blood, Part 2

**A/N: ****Google Andy Sixx. That's 'him'. Oh yeah~**

**I do not own PJatO. Nor do I own "Death, Be Not Proud", which is John Donne's Holy Sonnet 10. I do not own When I Get Home You're So Dead by Mayday Parade. Who I'm seeing in November :heart:! **

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**The answer was utter pain and panic.

The hand that held up my chin snaked down to grasp my right arm. My stomach worked its way up into my throat. It was like my arm was being slashed open again. Surely if I looked down my skin would hanging in ragged ribbons, blooding pouring from the wounds, decaying to the bone...

He let go of me and I could breathe again.

Those cold red lips brushed against my ear, "Give it to me?"

"What do you mean!"

"You know what I want. I've already asked nicely. Now hand it over and you won't-"

Him and the cave and the _worl_d disappeared. I was in the clouds, much higher than I had gone on Celeste. And I was falling twice as fast. I kicked and flapped my arms but I didn't scream as the earth rose to greet me. I was going to break my neck, I was going to-

"-get hurt," he finished, his voice full of a satisfaction that made my insides twist. Yes, me, Aline Lucis who would stand to up Furies and Thalia and lava covered rock walls and _Nico di Angelo_ was terrified by this mere boy. But you would've been just as scared. My mind was reeling but I tried to form a sentence.

"I don't know what you want."

"Please. You're perfectly aware of the fact that gods can't take objects of power directly. Father still gave it to him, the insufferable brat- but that insufferable brat gave it to you. Just like I thought he would."

"I don't understand anything you're say-" my pleas were cut off by a bang and a flash. Something ricocheted past my head. Suddenly something tore through my leg. I crumpled and gripped my calf. My hands came away sticky and streaked with red. I stared at them in horror when there was another bang and another bullet tore through my shoulder. I bit my lip hard enough to draw even _more_ blood. I clutched my shoulder and tried not to cry as another volley of bullets came at me, grazing my cheeks and hands but never killing me.

One shot was fired and it would have hit me right between the eyes if he hadn't spoken up.

"Have you had enough?"

Flustered I looked myself over. Gunpowder settled on every inch of me but there was no hole to be seen. I touched my lip. Yeah, bloody.

"Hand it over."

"...no."

He lazily ran a hand through his platinum locks, "Fine. _I _have all the time in the world."

With that I had to go through the worst deaths of Greek history. A discus to the head. An arrow in my weak spot, struck by lightning and being buried underground. All the while I recited a poem to myself,

"_Death be not proud, though some have called thee  
__Mighty and dreadfull, for, thou art not so,  
__For, those, whom thou think'st, thou dost overthrow,  
__Die not, poore death, nor yet canst thou kill me._"

He wouldn't kill me, I thought over and over. Not yet.

After what must have been a dozen lifetimes he made the visions stop. I checked every time. My body was always unmarred. My, sanity, however was being blown to oblivion.

"It won't be hard at all," he crooned, "I'll be very nice, I'll even let you go... if you give it to me."

"I don't g-get what you w-want!" I wailed from behind my hands. He took my wrist and pulled it away in an amiable way.

"Don't act dumb. I know you're not. I've been watching you... for a very... very... long time," he whispered, pausing to press his rough lips to my jaw. I cuffed him on the side of the head, using all the anger and fear that was building up inside. There was a crack and my hand started throbbing but I only felt him frown.

"Be that way," he sounded irritated, "You know, back in the good old days, they would let girls like you _burn_."

Fire licked at my heels. I'd heard burning was the worse way to die. I was starting to believe them. The heat was oppressive and solid as a wall. But it didn't hurt, not really. A flame caressed my cheek. Fire wrapped it's arms around me and I didn't fight it. The flames disappeared. Ash fell from above but my hair wasn't even burnt.

"Are you just going to stand there and watch me burn?" the words had tumbled out of my lips before I had really processed them.

"Sort of."

And I was dragged beneath the surface of water. I screamed- naturally. The foul, frigid water filled my lungs. I spat it out but it poured back in. This was no five feet of lake. I forced my eyes open but it made no difference; it was akin to being blind. Nothing but black water, pushing on me from all sides, leaving me helpless. There was no air, but I was going to sufocate on my own terror first. The water turned back into fire. Acidic. Scorching. Stripping me to the bone. Washing away my identity.

"Make it stop! I'll give you whatever damn thing it is you want."

I was no longer drowning. Instead I began to convulsing. I hacked up water that had never been in my lungs. The water was gone but my face was wet with tears.

"You're giving it to me willingly, correct?" he asked. I nodded feebly.

"Good." And to my astonishment, he tugged Nico's ring off my finger, not noticing when the bone cracked and probably not caring.

"You have to let me go," My demand sounded weak.

He snickered, " I don't have to do anything. _You_ on the other hand..." his stygian eyes were suddenly alight with the unfinished threats.

_And he's making you scream with his hands on your hips,  
Hope he's leaving you empty, this is just a fix_

And right then, if he wasn't already there, I'd wish for Death to come quickly.

* * *

**Attention, please! I will not be writing, telling, or returning to what's happened to Aline. You, the readers, can make your own assumptions. Review? I need honest opinions on this.**


	32. 32 Homecoming

**A/N: Why did everyone think this story was over -_-; Cause its not. This story, which could have easily become 50+ chapters, was way too long. To be less intimidating I will write the second half under the title '_Unraveling_'. **

**Kyaa~ I'm, like, proud of myself :D Important AN at the bottom.**

**Disclaimer? I have never and will never own PJO. Lyrics are Goodbye My Love by Lovehatehero but listen to Cat and Mouse- Red Jumpsuit Apparatus while reading.**

* * *

There were no answers.

I tumbled between worlds, between consciousness and the dark, and from the realm of the dead back to the world of the living. I might of rose from the ground or fallen from the sky or maybe I just appeared, but I was back at Camp Half-Blood. Tossed away when Thanatos had gotten what he wanted, when he was done with me. Back inside the secure borders of camp, but I still felt far from safe. And I probably always would feel far from safe, as I had experienced things worse than death.

I flexed my fingers experimentally. They could move, but I couldn't find the strength to lift myself up. Maybe someone would find me. I was in the middle of the courtyard but no one was there. It was empty. I turned my eyes back to the sky, which was a shade of gold that seemed to sneer down at me. This evening was the first bright thing I'd seen in ages, except for his piercings- _cold, rough_. I looked away. The sky wasn't all that beautiful.

"_Oh, they sing our song, they cheer us on,_  
_and make it all worthwhile._  
_They always come and go._"

I smelled the smoke before I saw it. It was rising in the east, like the sun, and instead of gray and black it was a bright orange. Someone was speaking. They were too far away for me to make it out but their voice was undeniably sad- and undeniably familiar... Thalia? Somebody else took over- a snide voice I couldn't help but remember- _he had __a voice like rattlesnakes_- Sara? Her words must have been as rude as her tone because someone else cut in. Angry words, shouting words but the voice was just as velvety as I remembered- _skin like velvet but cold as marble_. It was Nico. And he was leaving, coming my way.

His oddly comforting curses in Greek and Italian were getting louder. My heart pounded in what I hoped was anticipation. Nico would find me. It would be okay. But when he finally came around the corner of Cabin 17, I almost screamed. I must have let out a cry because he looked up from the rock he was kicking. His eyes locked on mine but there was nothing inky or mysterious about them. Just flints of ice. The color drained from his face- skin that was already too white. His lips parted in shock- not pale pink and captivating but blood red and threatening. And he came closer- not the son of the Lord of the Dead but Death himself. My heart constricted in horror.

As he came closer- _don't come any closer, don't dare_- I fumbled for my necklace, where was it? He knelt beside me- _robes the color of spilled blood_- and reached out- _don't touch me, not now, not ever_. I didn't know I'd said the words until something akin to confusion crossed his features.

"Aline..."

I should have known right then. _He_'d never once said my name like that. Only Nico would, could, should. But the whip was already in my hand and struck the side of his neck. His curse was rather audible- _I'd said so many curses but none of them did anything_. Nico spoke but I couldn't hear him over the bloodlust in my veins. Nico reaching for my whip was the last straw. I couldn't let it happen again- _never again_. I brought down the whip _again_ and _again_. He probably begged me to quit- but I had done the same and _he_ didn't stop. I couldn't hurt him- so I'd settle for hurting his half brother. Except I had underestimated this son of Hades, and I promptly passed out.

When I awoke again I wrapped in so many blankets I thought I had been mummified. I wasn't. I was the pristine infirmary, too many people crowded around me to count with my pounding headache. I opened my cracked lips but no sound came out. With a nod that small redhead, Kayla, reached over and held a glass to my lips. Nectar still tasted like liquid nachos. I waited for the healing power of the stuff to work its way to my brain but it didn't. I could move a little better but my mind still felt like it had been bashed in with a water pipe- repeatedly.

I looked at the people assembled above me. Thalia, tugging on her hair nervously; Annabeth, still eying me like a math equation she didn't think was worth figuring out; Chiron, his old eyes perpetually sad; Kayla, who was yet to betray any emotion; Mathias, whose glasses were shiny with tears; Travis and Connor, trying their best to be the enthusiastic ones of the ensemble; and a boy I didn't know but he looked a lot like sleeping calf. Finally, Annabeth broke the silence,

"I told you we shouldn't have burned her burial shroud," she said in that clipped, factual way of hers.

The words moved through my gray matter at the speed molasses. Burial... shroud? _The fuc_-

"Aline," Thalia spoke up, "do you know where you are?"

I looked for the words, struggling to get them out, "Camp Half-Blood. But why..." was I tied to a bed- _rope binding my wrists, I couldn't move, couldn't do a thing_.

With a strength I never thought I possessed I broke the bounds around my wrists. I lashed out blindly, screeched, not realizing that these were the people that'd never hurt me. It took Connor, Travis, and Kayla to get me down again. My breathing was loud and ragged and my heart thudded against the walls of my chest, trying to break out. The previously sleeping boy now had a long gash on his cheek.

"Aline," Mathias sounded desperate, "Don't fall into that. Please. We don't want," he voice cracked," last night to happen again."

Last night? The words held no meaning for me. I couldn't remember it at all. Just a heavy, cloudy feeling that left me feeling empty.

"Might as well let her see me," a frustrated voice joined in. Thalia stepped in front of him but Nico stepped past with ease. Llike a ghost, he was. And I gasped. Then I almost cried. He was shirtless but his entire torso, even his arms, his neck were covered in bandages.

"I've heard of girlfriends who had their boyfriends whipped but this..." Travis said. Annabeth and his brother dragged him away, already starting on the talk of having _decency _and _self control_, one talk they should have been giving to _me_. But I didn't pay too much attention. I was too preoccupied tracing the red scars on Nico's skin- ones that would match mine.

Chiron formed every word slowly and carefully, as if one misstep would send me over an edge I had long left, "Do you remember last night Miss Lucis."

I shook my head.

"Can you recall what happened after you... disappeared at the hotel?"

I lied. "No."

"Last night, your father claimed you. Do you remember who it is?"

I put on a smile that didn't quite reach my eyes, "Surprise me."

"It's Apollo, Sunshine," Nico said, tugging on a spare shirt. I was glad; I couldn't bring myself to look at what I'd done.

"Y-you'll heal, ri-ight..." I muttered.

"Hm? Well yeah. No big deal."

"Would you like to go to Cabin Seven now, Aline? It seems your father's left you a gift or two."

I feigned gratefulness and Chiron left to inform, r.e: warn, my... siblings. But inside all I could feel was 'it's too little too late, Dad'. Speaking of too little too late, I turned to Nico.

"I-"

The expression he held was enough to shut me up, "I knew- or at thought you thought I was a monster. I didn't know or think it was this much."

He left me stunned. But I couldn't even cry. I'd been through way to much to sob at that. At least right now. There would be a Great Tear Flood coming soon enough. Mathias surveyed the infirmary, making sure no one was around before undoing the binds around my wrists. He helped me up but didn't remove his warm hand from my back. I flinched from the contact but he kept it there.

"Are you going to be okay?"

"Yes," I lied.

* * *

**~Part One OWARI~**

**Now for the fun part, editing every, single previous chapter. You can re-read if you feel like it. Hopefully it will be neater. A kind of index to explain everything will be up soon, as well as a reviewer questionnaire. And if you have _any_ questions leave 'em in a review! Thankies~**

**I will write up all my love, love, love to you all in the little wrap up that will be Chapter 33, so watch for it!**


	33. 33 Cheat Sheet and Sort Of Wrap Up

Misaki Takahashi has the cutest orgasm face I've ever seen o_o

**Complicated: Cheat Sheet**

Hi! Here's the cheat sheet chapter to make Complicated, well, no so Complicated, haha *shot*.

But first, my love! To everyone that every bothered to click on the story and review. Especially reviewers. Over the past, what, nine months you guys have always made my day. Made this story worth writing, made me laugh, and made me get off my arse and do something. I know I'm The Worst Updater In History but you guys are The Best Readers Ever. I wish I could single you all out but I don't know how to, really, so everyone accept this virtual cookie of appreciation!

But the 'saga' is not over yet so I'm not going to go super~kawaii~desu~fangirl yet!

Now for the point. Explations of who, what, and why.

* * *

Character In Depths (includes some stuff I may have forgotten but will be mentioned in the future)

**Aline Lucis:  
**- age 15, as of October 29  
- on the tanner side, dark hair- wavy and natty in humidity, hazel eyes, birdlike- skinny but small  
- If you really must know her ancestry is Brazilian  
- grew up in Alta Sansa, a surfing town in SoCal  
- moved to New York at age 14 and instantly hated it  
- an okay student at Darkwoud Academy, an 'alternative' boarding school which pretty much meant 'mess up and run seven miles through the streets of Harlem'  
- enjoys Greek history and music  
- her mom and her have more a sister-sister relationship than parent-child  
- likes pushing her limits  
- is terrified of water because even that has no control  
- daughter of Apollo and Angelique Lucis  
- best friend is Tanner, a surfer, 18, more of an older brother than anything else

**Mathias Kohler:  
**- amazingly, he was not named after Denmark from Hetalia (well, not intentionally)  
- age 17, as of April 18  
- grew up with a mom and a dad and a little brother  
- quiet sort of nerd  
- is a success at gaming, has the high score on almost everything ever  
- is good a building and planning attacks but it physically weak  
- is in love with Aline's half brother, CG  
- his 'Closet Key' ? At age 14 he totally jacked off to this one dude's avatar *goes and hides in a corner, just in case*  
- is a sucker for hentai and disguises them as novels. That's what he was reading the second time Aline approached him  
- no muscle to speak of, wavy brown hair, generic emo glasses, coffee colored eyes, and he spends all his time on MMORPG's so he's pretty pale, has burn scars  
- son of Hephaestus and Belle Swan- which is my friend's name, the poor girl

**CG Soleilfoy:  
**- his surname sounds way prettier in my head 'so-leh-fuhwah'  
- was an aspiring musician online but that's how the monsters found him x)  
- he was one of the foreign demigods from- that's right- FRANCE ohonhon~  
- athletic build, gold blonde hair that's short and neat, hazel eyes, great fashion sense r.e: French  
- always seen with a guitar, a ukulele, or a lyre  
- happy go lucky, flirty, but is not the complete airhead you'd expect  
- is pretty blatantly bi  
- he's not a beautiful boy harboring some deep inner turmoil, he's just beautiful  
- son of Apollo and Marianne Soleilfoy- the name was shamelessly taken from Nyotalia

**The Alta Sansa gang:  
**- Tanner, 18 and Griffin and Alec, both 16  
- Tanner is a surfer who is good enough to go pro  
- typical California guys  
- the twins would probably set you on fire then steal you wallet then apologize so they can also take your watch  
- Aline's first best friends, her mom loves them too  
- the trio always tried to teach her to swim but she steadily refuses  
- since its three guys and a girl, the boys always conspired with Angelique to get her daughter into skirts and dresses, with bad, bad results

* * *

**Clues Aline Was A Daughter Of Apollo:  
**- magical radio powers  
- infatuation with her music player  
- over protectiveness of her iPod  
- scared of the dark  
- according to Grover she had a gold aura like the other Apollo kids  
- 'lucis' means 'light' in some language  
- could finish and recite poetry from memory  
- felt an attraction to Cabin Seven  
- without knowing, she healed a scratch on her face and a wound on Nico's shoulder  
- woke up with the sun  
- doesn't she kind of come right out and say 'hey Apollo's my dad'  
- if the above wasn't enough, Kayla looked like she resented Aline. This was because she could tell Aline was her sister and wondered why she could not heal herself

**Clues It Was Thanatos All Along:  
**- creepy guy in her dreams? Yeah, wasn't Nico x3  
- visions of the Underworld  
- Hades threatened to send up Nico's half brother. So it would be a ghost, Hypnos or Thanatos  
- the voice in her head when she was about to jump was the same as his  
- all the attempted murders  
- all signs pointed to Nico but think about it and they pointed to Thanatos too  
- also Nico said he didn't do it ._.

* * *

**Trouble Shooting:**

**Q: Why was Thalia in this story? Isn't she with the Hunters?  
A: **Yes. She still is. But isn't the point of the Hunters to protect young maidens and all? Aline needed some protecting- special assignment from Artemis herself actually par request from- wait! This will be addressed in Unraveling okay?

**Q: Why was Nico so OOC?  
A: **Well we only know him at age twelve. Who knows how he would act at sixteen.

**Q: Aline's a Mary Sue.  
A: **Not much of a question :| I gave her flaws, feelings, a back story, personality and portrayed her to the best of my ability.

**Q: Is this the end of Complicated?  
A: **You could say that...

**Q: Yaoi?  
A: **Maybe x3

**Q: Het?  
****A: **I can barely write a kiss. So no. Not even a lime, unless someone wants to help me out with it- majorly.

**Q: Release date of Unraveling?  
A: **December 7th at the _latest_. My birthday where I shall be claimed and taken to the cam- *is shut up before she spoils stuff*

**Q: Can you help, I'm still confused.  
A: **To put it simply: Aline is a half blood new to Camp Half Blood and is not claimed. There is a vague prophecy about her [see below]. Nico di Angelo hates her. She falls for Mathias who happens to be in love with one of the camp's golden boys. Cue heartbreak. Aline is almost killed three times and all things point to Nico. Before confirming this Aline is sent on a quest. Nico makes up with her for the most part before she departs and gives her a token- his ring, which he sometimes uses to summon ghosts. While in New York City, Aline is kidnapped to the Underworld. Enter Thanatos- who was after her all along. Cue stealing of ring. Cue bad stuff. Enter Aline at Camp Half-Blood. She is now snapped!Aline. Now things are going to get worse as the prophecy is fulfilled.

* * *

**If Anyone Is Reading This, Answer These Questions**

1. What did you think of this story?

2. How did you feel about Aline- from the bubbly, slightly stupid girl in the start to the snapped, slightly stupid girl in the end :)?

3. Was Nico portrayed well? How about Thalia?

4. Opinion on Mathias?

5. Think Mat deserves a bit of a spotlight on his own romantic misadventure?

6. If you listened to any of the music mentioned, did you like the story's 'playlist'?

7. Did you see the two big deals (Apollo's claiming, Thanatos) coming?

8. Any requests for things to happen next?

9. Pie?

10. Anything to add/tell me (including Pie)?

* * *

**The Prophecy:**

Στο σκοτάδι του χρόνου συναντά την ημέρα,  
ο κόσμος πρέπει να στραφούν σε αποχρώσεις του γκρι,  
μια απλή υπόσχεση και ένα απλό λάθος,  
θα είναι το μόνο που χρειάζεται,  
Όταν η συγχώρεση χορηγείται και φαίνεται ότι όλα είναι επιλυθεί,

Θα έχει ξεκινήσει: το χειρότερο πόλεμο όλων.

At the time darkness meets day,  
the world shall turn to shades of gray,  
a simple promise and a simple mistake,  
will be all it takes,  
When forgiveness is granted and it seems all is resolved,  
It will have begun: the worst war of all

* * *

Lunar: ^That took me awhile. Okay. Is everything done here? Yes. Good. Lets pack it up boys!  
Nico: *surveys junk* I am not carrying that.  
Aline: Don't I have enough baggage already?  
Lunar: No my dear. You don't.


End file.
